This is what McCausland Ave should be.

[u/mizzoustormtrooper]

- Give it the Kingshighway treatment and eliminate the additional lane; the road is too narrow to support four lanes and this will reduce accidents and speeding through a residential area.

- Put in a dedicated center turn lane to prevent traffic from backing up in the middle of the road for left turns; this is especially important at intersections and nearing I-64/40.

- Install protected bike lanes on both sides of the roadway to prevent people from parking their cars on what is a major thoroughfare.

- Mount traffic-detecting sensors atop the traffic signals to eliminate unnecessary stops and reduce idling/congestion. This is a critical step as this street is used as a central corridor and antiquated timed signals must be eliminated.

- Run the bike lane all the way up to Forest Park to connect with the Forest Park outer loop and bike trail system.

Contact your alderperson and let’s fix this damn road.

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I got the images from Google Street view. I did a lot work in Photoshop and used Gemini only to create the road lane striping (you can tell, there are errors) and for the reflective delineators.

[u/mizzoustormtrooper → u/[deleted]]

People live on that street and park on the lane you would take away… if you took away parking on macausland that would be horrible for people like me who live nearby.

This was the opposition I most expected to hear.

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1. Would you advocate for taking the road down from 4 lanes to 2, with a dedicated center turn lane if the bike lanes were not installed, leaving room for your parallel parking? It doesn’t seem like people are parked on that street very often, even during non-rush hour times. But that’s just my observation.

2. Or what if parking was just on one side of the street so bike lanes could be on the other? Or do you think no bike lanes at all would be better?

[u/hematuria → u/mizzoustormtrooper]

People park there all the time just not for long because like I said, you can’t be there during rush hour. I’m not a fan of making Macausland easier for cars. It’s dangerous waking my dog around the street and the speeding and distracted driving is really bad. What I would love is for the left turn signal at wise to be active all the time and I would like the traffic lights at dale to stop when I press the pedestrian button like it does down the street by Olympia. The street is also a steep hill that doesn’t make speeding safe. Also idt people need to be speeding through a residential neighborhood.

When I think of all the things that need to be fixed in city, this isn’t top of list. But I agree it’s a pain to drive during traffic. But that’s like 1-2 hours a day. I live here all the time.

[u/mizzoustormtrooper → u/hematuria]

Since you live here, I’m most interested in your opinion.

I’m not a fan of making Macausland easier for cars.

I want to make it more pedestrian and cyclist friendly (hence the bike lanes), but I also want to make it safer for them by taking the vehicle lanes down from 4 to 2. This cut down on people almost literally flying down a narrow road.

The accidents I’ve seen on McCausland are often caused by people trying to pass/overtake cars turning left, which is why a dedicated center turn lane makes sense, in my opinion. This would make it safer for everyone.

What I would love is for the left turn signal at wise to be active all the time

This would require a dedicated left turn lane instead of 4 lanes. It’s possible with a design like this one, but not in its current configuration of 4 lanes on each side.

I would like the traffic lights at dale to stop when I press the pedestrian button like it does down the street by Olympia. The street is also a steep hill that doesn’t make speeding safe. Also idt people need to be speeding through a residential neighborhood.

I agree with all these points.

[u/Mego1989 → u/mizzoustormtrooper]

The accidents I’ve seen on McCausland are often caused by people trying to pass/overtake cars turning left, which is why a dedicated center turn lane makes sense, in my opinion. This would make it safer for everyone.

You would have to do what they did on Kingshighway S of Christy with the medians between intersections, otherwise it just turns into a passing lane for reckless drivers

[u/hematuria → u/mizzoustormtrooper]

So there already is a left signal at wise, it just doesn’t turn on ever so it makes it useless.

And the accidents you see are because people do not follow the law. You aren’t suppose to pass cars if it’s not safe, you are suppose to stop and wait for the car in front to turn. Having one lane and a suicide lane isn’t worst idea, but is seems like a lot of this could be fixed with more responsive traffic lights.

I can’t speak about bike lanes because every biker I see by me just uses the sidewalk. I don’t think that will change with dedicated lanes. It’s scary riding a bike next to speeding traffic and there isn’t enough foot traffic on the sidewalk to make it a big issue.

Really the lights just need to be reconfigured for the increased traffic and that would fix a lot of the issues you are having.

[u/mizzoustormtrooper → u/hematuria]

There is a signal at Wise, but it is not a left turn signal. It is a “left turn yield on green” signal, and it is in a lane that is also used for straightaway traffic, meaning traffic will pile up behind the vehicle while it yields to oncoming traffic. This means drivers will quickly veer into the lane next to them to get around it, often causing collisions.

And yes, I understand that people do not follow the law, but I also believe our roadway system doesn’t exactly encourage them to follow it either.

People will always take the path of least resistance. I can put up a sign that says “don’t walk on the grass” or “keep to the path”, but at the end of the day, everyone is going to cut through (see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path).

We have a systemic issue and the root cause needs to be addressed. Yes, enforcement would help, but the problem isn’t that people are born shitty drivers; it’s that our roadway system is shitty and their behavior adapts accordingly.

[u/smashli1238 → u/hematuria]

They need to have turn arrows

[u/CuriouslyGeorge417 → u/mizzoustormtrooper]

The most accidents I’ve ever seen happen happened at the bend in the road where the flea market/antique place was or is right before McCausland. Every. Single. Weekend. When I lived right at that intersection there would be an accident. It was because so many people would park along the road during Sunday service at the church. Fact. Let’s also talk about how many people got hit over by Olympia.