Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Streetsblog

Are Two-Way Streets the Way of the Future?

11:30 AM EDT on September 29, 2009

Today on the Streetsblog Network, we're featuring a post from San Francisco's Pedestrianist about two-way street conversions in Minneapolis and how such changing traffic patterns could benefit pedestrians and other users:

3291357587_5bdc4ca1a8

The city of Minneapolis is about to return two of its downtown streets to two-way traffic after nearly 30 years of one-way flow. Those streets, like many in downtowns across the country, were converted to one-way couplets by auto-centric traffic engineers in the middle of the last century.

Their goal was to squeeze more cars through older, narrow streets as fast as they could. And that's exactly what happened. The problem is that the fast, thick traffic along these one-way streets has proven to be dangerous to vulnerable road users, especially pedestrians, and has often pushed away much of the street life.

In San Francisco, the grid of one-way streets on either side of Market and around the old ramps to the Central Freeway in Hayes Valley and the Western Addition are among the most dangerous places to walk. The recent killing of a woman on Fell Street has prompted numerous calls to calm the traffic on that and other unidirectional expressways. One of the more common sentiments expressed in comments on Streetsblog is that these one-way couplets should be restored back to two-way traffic.

Two-way streets are naturally calmer because cars approaching from opposite directions make each other nervous. Nervous drivers are slower and more alert to their surroundings. Two way streets are also easier for bicycles to navigate, and the presence of bikes on a street further calms car traffic.

There is, in my opinion, no reason not to begin restoring two-way traffic on San Francisco streets, starting with the most dangerous first. The lives of our neighbors are too high a cost to justify a slightly faster car commute.

More from around the network: FABB Blog and Missouri Bicycle News call attention to a Parade magazine article about the bicycling mayor of Columbia, Missouri. Greater Greater Washington scrutinizes the National Park Service's rejection of a request to use Rock Creek Parkway for an organized bike tour event. And Let's Go Ride a Bike has more on the biking gender gap.

Photo by wvs via Flickr.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Friday’s Headlines: A Congestion Alert Day

Like everyone else, we covered congestion pricing. Plus other news.

December 1, 2023

Adams Says He’ll Ban Parking Near 1,000 Intersections Every Year To Make Corners Safer

The city will daylight 1,000 intersections a year. A Brooklyn corner where a boy was killed in a crash is still waiting for the safety upgrades.

December 1, 2023

Komanoff: IMHO, TMRB is A-OK

Here’s what’s to like about the Traffic Mobility Review Board's central business district toll recommendations. It's a lot!

December 1, 2023

DOT’s New Emissions Rule is a Big Deal, Even if It Doesn’t Punish States for Polluting

No states will face penalties for building needless toxic road projects — but they also won't be able to hide those impacts from the public.

December 1, 2023

Cops Search for Hit-and-Run Driver Who Killed 3-Year-Old in Queens

The merciless motorist killed 3-year-old Quintas Chen in downtown Flushing, Queens on Wednesday night.

November 30, 2023
See all posts