Nicholasville Road... How would you improve the traffic situation, improve character, make it more sustainable? (Lexington: how much)

[UKUKUK]

Another urban planning buff and myself got really drunk last night, and as urban planning nerds do, we sat on his balcony overlooking Nicholasville Road and discussed things that could be done in order to make it better. I'm curious if you Lexingtonians would ever favor a street layout that looks like this pattern based on a mixture of the Healthline corridor in Cleveland and the typical "complete street" pattern:

The entire idea is to promote a more dense, safe corridor with multiple transit options. Imagine being able to hop on your bike in Southland and ride to the mall on a breezy 75 degree day without having to worry about death by cars! Or walking from your house in Chevy Chase down to the corner of Euclid and hitching a ride to the mall or into downtown! Imagine a Lexington where you don't NEED a car, but it's merely a means of convenience on cold and rainy days.

This is the kind of things we urban planning nerds do when we drink, yes, but I think it'd be a cool idea if you could ever hitch the LEX planning department onto something of this sort. Perhaps one could even extend an express bus lane all the way into Jessamine County!

What would you do to solve the traffic nightmare and improve Lexington's busiest corridor?


Also, for those who have not seen the Healthline:

It's the focus of a lot of the 6.8 billion flowing in in development for Cleveland's once ailing Euclid Corridor and education/health industries.
The concept is a bus that is almost never late, runs on fuel efficient energy, is cheap and safe to ride, never gets backed up at stop lights as it has its own lane, usually leads to a change in the light FAVORING the bus in order to make it the most efficient 4 wheeled transit on the road.

Can I run Lextran and KYDOT yet?

[cartomanlex]

Originally Posted by UKUKUK

Another urban planning buff and myself got really drunk last night,

This is the kind of things we urban planning nerds do when we drink, yes, but I think it'd be a cool idea if you could ever hitch the LEX planning department onto something of this sort.

When the planning nerds wake up and sober up, they realize that although these are great ideas, the funding has to be behind the effort. The funding comes from the people whose minds you are trying to change. Great ideas spring up in Lexington Planning all the time but the funding is a little harder to come by. I should know.

I have been associated with Lexington Planning since 1972. I have biked in from Chevy Chase and Lansdowne, I have walked in from Kenwick and farther, I have bused in from out near Man o' War and Armstrong Mill. Until the peak oil crisis hits, I don't expect too many folks to be looking for this kind of solution which you describe.

Just curious, how much real world experience do you have in the planning field? It doesn't sound like very much.

[UKUKUK]

Originally Posted by cartomanlex

When the planning nerds wake up and sober up, they realize that although these are great ideas, the funding has to be behind the effort. The funding comes from the people whose minds you are trying to change. Great ideas spring up in Lexington Planning all the time but the funding is a little harder to come by. I should know.

I have been associated with Lexington Planning since 1972. I have biked in from Chevy Chase and Lansdowne, I have walked in from Kenwick and farther, I have bused in from out near Man o' War and Armstrong Mill. Until the peak oil crisis hits, I don't expect too many folks to be looking for this kind of solution which you describe.

Just curious, how much real world experience do you have in the planning field? It doesn't sound like very much.

Of course it's not a realistic idea and would probably never happen.

I've got very little in the actual field, but I had a GIS focus in my studies and therefore worked as an analyst for an electric company in Michigan for a while before life turned sour.

Believe me, I know it's ridiculous. What I want to see is what the average Lexingtonian (who probably doesn't use bikes) would think of the idea of a dedicated public trans line on Nicholasville road, or how receptive they are to the idea of making the corridor walkable/bikeable.

Y'see, once upon a time, the people of Lexington willingly accepted a tax increase in order to keep LexTran running. I also wonder if they'd be willing to divert from that to make the transit more effective or provide yet another alternative to get around town.

It's not that I'm ever expecting to see anything like this, but as a transit buff and warrior for all things financially and environmentally sustainable, I just want to know what people in a city recently ranked "the most sedentary" would be willing to pay for, and if so, what they'd want to see.

City-data, much like Simcity or whatever other city building game there is, is a computer based communication application (albeit with actual people) with very little real world implications and very few real world constraints.

Plus, why willingly accept the status quo? Why not talk about it at least? My hope is that by discussion of complete streets with people in the city of Lexington, one could see enough desire in the citizenry to not only support them, but even be willing to chip in to pay for them. There are all sorts of financing options available. Developers in the area would likely JUMP at the chance to add additional storefronts, walkable shopping plazas and the likes to their expensive hunks of land. They've got the room for it, for sure.

In short: No, I'm not an urban planner. I'm trained in it but lean more towards the technical applications of GIS. Where I received my training we were instructed heavily in urban design and theory. Great ideas and action come from discussion and spread of knowledge though. Even if it's unrealistic, let's try instead of sit around and say "OH THAT'LL NEVER HAPPEN". So... let's talk about it, Lexington.

So, anyone want to have an actual discussion about what such street-level improvements could do for the major corridors of Lexington?