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Urbana committee backs sending $200,000 road-diet demonstration on Lincoln Avenue to council
Summary
Staff requested MFT appropriation to test a temporary 'road diet' on Lincoln Avenue (Washer Drive–Killarney) using a $200,000 Safe Streets and Roads for All grant. The committee voted unanimously to forward the MFT resolution to city council with a recommendation for approval after discussing data collection, emergency response, bus operations, and neighborhood impacts.
Urbana transportation staff presented a proposal to conduct a temporary road-diet demonstration on Lincoln Avenue between Washer Drive and Killarney Street, asking the Committee of the Whole to appropriate $200,000 from motor-fuel funds (to be reimbursed by a Safe Streets and Roads for All grant) to pay for temporary restriping, traffic control devices, maintenance of markings during the demonstration, and removal at the end of the test period.
Staff described the demonstration as a temporary restriping of the corridor from four travel lanes to a three-lane configuration (one lane each direction plus a two-way center left-turn lane) to test safety and multimodal connectivity, and to gather before/after traffic data, including vehicle turning movements, corridor volume, and anonymized Bluetooth/cellphone-derived routing data. Staff said the project team will run traffic simulations and seek IDOT approvals; they estimated the earliest implementation could be in 2025 and suggested a multi-month demonstration window to capture varied conditions.
Council raised several operational concerns: possible liability during an experiment; impacts on the food bank's queuing and service (staff indicated the food pantry served about 400 families last week); emergency vehicle access and fire-department input; signal/detector adjustments and bus stop turnouts; exit criteria if the trial created unacceptable congestion or safety issues; and meaningful community engagement during the demo. Staff said these issues will be part of the design, that emergency services and neighborhood stakeholders will be consulted, and that exit criteria and public-feedback mechanisms (public meetings and a project website) will be developed before implementation.
Motion and outcome: Councilmember Mary Alice moved, and Councilmember Jaya seconded, that resolution 2024-09-063R (MFT appropriation for Lincoln Avenue road-diet demonstration) be forwarded to the City Council with a recommendation for approval. The roll-call vote recorded unanimous approval among members present; the resolution will go to full City Council for final action.
Next steps: staff will proceed with required IDOT clearances and final design, develop evaluation metrics (including safety and traffic level-of-service criteria), coordinate with emergency services and the food pantry, and present implementation details and public-engagement plans to City Council.
