GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) – City of Greenville officials say a road diet, or a lane reduction, that was put in place on a stretch of Augusta Street in March is working to slow down traffic.
Safety concerns about Augusta Street for both drivers and neighbors have been around for several years.
“I think the neighborhood is a lot safer,” said Paige Wisdom, who lives off Augusta Street.
Slower traffic, fewer cars on the road, and longer commute times are the impacts the road diet is having on the busy street.
“Very similar to what we were expecting from our earlier studies,” said City of Greenville Director of Engineering Clint Link.
More than six months after part of the road was reduced from four lanes to three, city officials shared the findings of a study on Thursday about the impact the changes have had.
“I think there’s a lot more that people would like to see done but I think everybody feels very positive about how quickly this was able to be assessed, analyzed, and implemented,” said Wisdom.
Several neighbors who live along Augusta Street were at the presentation and shared ideas about what else they would like to be done.
“The wonderful thing about the city of Greenville is the outdoors and the biking and I think if the city could encourage better means to take bikes downtown, I still would not ride my bike down Augusta,” Wisdom added.
Some of the options for the second phase of improvements include multi-use paths, landscaping, resurfacing, and more.
“We’re in a position to start moving forward with the second phase of this project pretty quickly. It is going to involve some more substantial engineering work,” explained Link.
To view the entire study, click here.
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