Cedar Rapids council adopts plan to convert more one-ways to two-ways

CEDAR RAPIDS - The City Council this week approved a five-year plan to convert some of the city's one-way streets to two-ways.

The council vote came after Justin Wasson, president of the Wellington Heights Neighborhood Association, and two neighborhood property owners told the council they wanted the city to go slow and convene public meetings before pushing ahead with some of the plans. City Council members assured the neighbors that the city would do so.

At the same time, council members Monica Vernon, Pat Shey and Scott Olson said the council has talked extensively about converting some one-way streets to two-ways. Shey said street conversions are designed for 'traffic calming,” and said most residential neighborhoods such as those in Wellington Heights have two-way streets, not one-ways.

Olson said he attended a national planning meeting last year in which cities across the nation were championing street conversions. He said the city's one-way avenues to and from the downtown area have less traffic than years ago, before Interstate 380 took much of the traffic from them.

No one is going out tomorrow and converting all the streets in the five-year plan, Olson said.

However, some streets are changing soon, Ron Griffith, the city's acting traffic engineering manager, told the council. He said:

This spring, the city will seek bids to convert Fourth Avenue SE from Sixth Street to 19th Street to two-way.

This spring, the city will seek bids to convert Second and Third avenues from Sixth Street SW to First Street SE to two-way.

This summer, the city will seek bids to convert Seventh Street SE from Fourth Avenue SE to 12th Avenue SE to two-way.

Portions of Second and Third avenues SE around the MedQuarter District and Fourth and Fifth avenues SE near the city's bus depot already have been changed from one-way to two-way streets.

Council member Justin Shields voted against the street-conversion plan.