Many of you have probably noticed by now that Duval at the railroad tracks had some lane changes. (I personally had not noticed, because I don’t drive that way out of the neighborhood, but News 8 Austin called me asking about it.)
Basically instead of the road going from four to two-and-a-turn-lane after the railroad tracks and the S curve, it now goes to two-and-a-turn-lane several hundred yards further east on Duval.
I called the city to ask the course of events. I was told that there had been traffic incidents of cars turning into the office complex and the apartments, and with the street resurfacing they were going to repaint the lines anyways so they were seeking to address the concerns.
Speaking only for myself, I have no problem with the change itself, because:
1) For all intents and purposes, Duval was already one lane westbound at that point anyways because you had to move over to avoid the Whispering Valley cutoff.
2) it was in fact a dangerous transition to go from four to two and a turn lane in the middle of an S curve – putting the transition on a straightaway is obviously safer.
3) the bike lane disappeared at that point previously and Duval is an important bike corridor and that was a dangerous transition point for bikes; finally;
4) the three most involved neighborhoods off of Duval (Milwood, Angus Valley, Mesa Park) have a long standing support for Duval as two-and-a-turn-lane, as opposed to Duval being a fast cutthrough from Cedar Park to the Domain.
It is ironic, however, that I can list off multiple reasons I agree with the rationale and and yet be frustrated by the approach, wherein we have another example of substantial change to local roadways without informing the neighborhoods. They manage the roads, but we use them every day and fund them, at a minimum we expect to be informed, in reality we should be partners in decisions.
What is the most frustrating is how truly simple it is to do community liaison work. All you have to do is value it and make it part of the process. How does Public Works expect people to react when the roads they use daily change from one night to the next morning? As I said before during turn lane situation, surprising people never creates advocates.
