Central City Mobility: 5th St & Hwy 50

This is Central City Mobility Project update #9.

I had earlier expressed concern and lack of information about where the 5th Street one-way to two-way conversion will be handled where 5th Street passes under Hwy 50. (Yes, I know, that this is technically not Hwy 50, but everyone thinks it is, so…)

The following diagram was provided the the city and design firm (pdf). The configuration looks workable, and it probably not any less safe than the current mess. The merging of the two on-ramps into one narrower entrance will probably help to slow traffic entering the freeway, making 5th Street a bit safer. Same with the narrowing of the off-ramp. The curb line will need to be moved in a few locations to accommodate the entire street width with bike lanes, but the curbs here are already quite deteriorated, so that work would be needed in any case. It is not clear from the diagram whether the missing sidewalks in the block between Broadway and X Street will be corrected.

3 thoughts on “Central City Mobility: 5th St & Hwy 50

  1. Thanks for digging this up. I didn’t expect the city to be able to reprofile the ramps, it does look like the westbound approaches are squeezed a bit which should slow traffic entering the freeway.

    It will be interesting to see how car traffic adjusts to this change. The traffic turning north off the ramp to 5th St can get quite backed up, but usually only when there are events downtown. Most of the rest of the time the intersections are pretty underutilized, but there will be more signal phases and I worry that the intersection will become “busy” on average and deter bike traffic (especially southbound, with the island bike lane, since the right lane will be heading to the freeway ramps–I assume there will be significant “new” car volume on this route).

    We shall see.

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  2. This is going to be a nightmare!!!!! Already in the past 2 years 5th street at Broadway and at X Street has become heavily impacted due to the high volume of gasoline delivery trucks mixed with increased residential drivers from dense new housing developments added along 5th Street south of Broadway. It can take nearly an entire green light for fuel-carrying semi-rigs to start off from a full stop. Once a big-rig does gain momentum, at best only 2 autos behind it can pass through the intersection before the light changes red. Worse yet the timing of the green lights moving north/south on 5th Street is exceptionally short and thus exceedingly frustrating for drivers—because it remains necessary (and always will) to drive to medical appointments, big box retailers and our jobs that are not located in the downtown from our Upper Land Park neighborhood. These conditions have been producing riskier driving tactics. Furthermore, these two intersections have become unbearable with so many motorists exiting the 1-5 onto Broadway to escape congestion due to Business 80 construction or traffic accident induced backups onto Business 80. The combined terrible timing of the traffic lights and high volume of autos has been producing congestion that backs up Broadway and 5th Street south of Broadway. How adding bike lanes and introducing bi-directional traffic here will be at all safe for riders escapes the imagination, as cyclists will add to congestion (for those wishing to make turns off or onto 5th street) fueling riskier driving behaviors by motorists or by cyclists threading themselves through the backup of vehicles and big-rigs, in particular, during peak hours.

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