Save the Lane

Disclaimer: The views here are those of private citizens and do not reflect the views of any organization.

Starting in spring 2017, southbound Ellendale/Wellington/Wabash will be permanently reduced to one southbound travel lane from Slay Park to Lansdowne. This is ONE travel lane for all southbound road users, including drivers of motor vehicles, tractor trailers, and bicycles.

Major concerns:

Project did not allow for, nor incorporate, adequate input from all road users, many of whom are commuters and do not live in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Most “road diets” include a center turn lane to allow faster moving vehicles to pass slow or stopped vehicles.

This design lacks a center turn lane, and has only ONE passing opportunity over a mile long stretch.

Increased congestion and increased response time for emergency vehicles.

Delays for users accessing the road from side streets.

The project will include a sidewalk multi-use path, but this design presents several dangers to bicyclists:

Safe operation on a sidewalk/sidepath requires very slow speeds, less than 8mph -- this is not practical for commuter bicyclists.

Due to turning conflicts and debris, it is safest and most efficient for commuter bicyclists to use a shared travel lane (i.e., NOT the sidewalk or multi-use path).

Most motorists have about a 43 second patience threshold when behind a slow moving road user, including bicyclists.

The impending lane loss, with only one passing opportunity over a mile of road will generate incivility and frustration among road users and create unsafe conditions for bicyclists using the road for transportation.

Neighborhood input on this project showed strong preference for a route that follows River Des Peres and not the road.  A river route would alleviate the concerns listed above. 

The original plans for the road route, as submitted to East West Gateway for funding included keeping the two southbound travel lanes, which would also address our concerns.

This project is funded in part by a federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) grant.  The number of commuters who would have to trade their car for a bicycle to achieve either a reduction in congestion or an improvement in air quality due to this project is simply unrealistic. In reality, southbound Ellendale/Wellington/Wabash will become much MORE congested and/or the motor vehicle traffic will divert to alternate routes which will themselves become more congested.

This is a project of Great Rivers Greenway (GRG), and plans can be found here:

http://3saguo2foe1c2j78571kps4o.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/River-des-Peres-Greenway-Aerial-View-of-Project-Southern-Section.pdf

http://3saguo2foe1c2j78571kps4o.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/River-des-Peres-Greenway-Aerial-View-of-Project-Northern-Section.pdf