Business owners in downtown Jonesboro want to make the area more of a destination than a north-south corridor for the city. According to some business owners, too much traffic through downtown can actually hurt business. So architectural consultants have been hired to suggest ways to make downtown more user friendly while easing traffic flow on Main st. and making it safer for pedestrians and cyclists at the same time. The consultants have present 5 plans to make that happen.
PLAN 1: Diverting traffic off of Main onto Church street while maintaining the existing layout of the street. This would reduce traffic by 45% but would not offer bike paths.
PLAN 2: Eliminate one lane of traffic on Main and adding a two way bike path. This would slow vehicle speeds but would lose 28 parking spaces.
PLAN 3: Change parallel parking to angle parking on one side of Main and create one bike path. This would eliminate on-street parking on one side.
PLAN 4: Change Main to a two way street with wider travel lanes. This would remove on-street parking on one side with no bike path.
PLAN 5: Add a bike path to PLAN 4.
Do you have ideas you think would improve the downtown area for both pedestrians, motorists and businesses as well? Comment on our Facebook page.
And read more about this story on the front page of the Jonesboro Sun