Driving can be stressful, and a tight two-lane road doesn’t make it any better. You are driving along jamming out with your friends in the car, but all you can think about is, “Don’t hit the car next to you, don’t hit the car parked on the side of the road, and don’t hit the cyclist trying to find room on the road.” 5th and 6th Streets are finally getting remodeled after debating on it for some time now.

These two streets are opposite one-ways next to each other. They are both two-lane one ways. 277 vehicle crashes have been reported between 2007 and 2014. Instead of having two two-lane one ways, they have made it into two one-lane one ways. With only one lane, they hope to decrease the amount of speeding on the road, and hopefully accidents will go down in correlation with that.

The two roads now have more parking space on the side of the road, a more prominent bike lane, a wider lane for single cars, and designated turning lanes. So after six years of debate on the new roads, they are coming together.

With every good guy in a story comes a bad guy. While the roads are nice and very helpful to everyone, it is quite confusing for most right now, due to the change in traffic patterns. This is a super new remodel to the roads and the people, not everyone has driven on it. Despite the signs and the heads up about the new lanes, not everyone catches it. On 5th Street crossing S. Higgins Ave., it goes from two lanes to one lane; in the very far left lane you have to turn left and if you don’t you potentially cause a wreck or scare other drivers. 

Overall people hope to benefit from the new roads, that goes for bikers, cars, and pedestrians overall. Again, after six years of debating, the plan is falling into place. Now hopefully people can cruise down the roads not feeling so stressed about everything going on around them.