East Dallas Delays Complete Street Project

A complete streets project in East Dallas has been delayed, writes Will Maddox, with a new completion date of 2025. "The street diet was initiated in 2017 by residents who wanted to provide more intermodal transportation through East Dallas and follows modifications made to Greenville Avenue and Henderson Avenue. Complete streets are part of the city’s plan to eliminate traffic deaths by 2030." The project's cost will go up by $2.3 million, but is "fully funded through the bond and city budgets."

"There is a silver lining in the delays," writes Maddox. "The roadway part of the complete street will be done in 2024, and the corridor is getting new signals and lighting to improve safety and visibility throughout. The new signals and crosswalks include better accessibility for the physically impaired, added turn signals, and infrastructure for Dallas’ Smart City Initiative, a multipronged approach to leveraging technology to make the city more efficient."

The bike lanes included in the project have received strong pushback from residents and businesses who want to see more traffic lanes for cars on the busy road and say few cyclists actually use the lane—though, as the article points out, "it is probably unfair to measure usage before there is a critical mass of safe and strategic cycling infrastructure."