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During a Ward 2 Community Meeting held at East Columbus Gym on June 23, residents voiced concerns of neighborhood speeding along several residential streets.
At the meeting, Kevin Stafford, city engineer, noted that some of those issues can be attributed to the width of some streets in East Columbus and downtown when compared to a typical residential neighborhood.
Why are some city streets wider than others? What kinds of problems do those streets present? Is the city doing anything to address those streets?
Why are some city streets so wide?
Rufus Ward, a local historian, said that when Columbus was in early development during the 19th century, there were about six main roadways that created the city’s early street grid.
Those roads included what are now known as Main Street, Airline Road, Market Street and College Street.
Ward said Main Street, which is about 80 feet wide, was built to accommodate mule and horse-drawn wagons maneuvering through and unloading goods from the Tombigbee River to local businesses.
Ward said that as more residents made their homes in the surrounding areas of Columbus and residential development ramped up, some of the roads, especially in what eventually became East Columbus, were built wider by residential developers who did not follow a standard road size.
“People would basically develop the little suburban areas or the little neighborhoods and … a lot of those streets actually were designed by the developers of each area that later became incorporated into the city,” Ward said.
Roadways in East Columbus alongside Fifth Street and Main Street have historically been a hotbed for speeding issues in the city, Stafford said.
Stafford estimated that only about 5% of residential roads in the city are wider than the standard 24-foot-wide two-lane road built in most modern neighborhoods.
And most of them are found in East Columbus, Stafford said.
“If that neighborhood were brought to the city today for development, we would have some very strong recommendations on the changes for those streets,” Stafford said. “Those streets in some areas are 40 feet wide, which is crazy.”
What are some issues with wider roads?
Stafford said the primary issue that comes with having those larger roadways is that drivers feel empowered to speed through residential neighborhoods. That speeding leads to safety concerns for collisions with other cars, pedestrians and cyclists.
“It’s always a safety concern,” Stafford said. “… Those people that are speeding, always can either lose control, (or) not be aware of others that are coming out. You’re not expecting in a residential neighborhood people to be speeding through there.”
Those larger roadways can also cause issues with city drainage by leaving less room for pervious surfaces, or specifically designed areas that allow water to filter into the ground beneath an asphalt road.
When a roadway is made smaller, it opens more room for that rainfall to be absorbed rather than accumulating on the top as runoff and putting a strain on nearby drainage infrastructure, Stafford said.
“By (narrowing a street) and increasing the pervious space, your rainwater now sinks into the ground … versus running off into a ditch,” Stafford said. “And a roadway technically lets about 10% (of rainfall) soak in and 90% (run) off, where the grass is (versus when the road is smaller and) it’s soaking in 90% of the rain and about 10% (is) running off.”
What is the city doing to address those problems?
Within the last year, the city has been working on two roadway projects aimed at addressing the width of Fifth Street and Main Street.
The $1.8 million Fifth Street improvement project, which is slated for a final walkthrough later this week, narrowed the lanes of the more than 40-foot-wide street, added bike lanes and crosswalks to improve issues with speeding on the road and pedestrian safety.
At its intersection with Main Street in downtown Columbus, the city also added roughly $27,000 in restriping for lane reassignments and enlarged reflectors to help slow traffic downtown.
Stafford said the city currently has submitted applications seeking roughly $5.9 million in grant funding to help fund permanent upgrades from the Magnolia Bowl to the Columbus Light and Water building, including curb and gutter, permanent bumpouts and signal improvements.
Beyond the downtown efforts, Stafford said as those larger residential roadways are slated for repaving in future city road improvement plans, they could receive improvements like new lane striping or markings for new bike lanes to naturally narrow in traffic.
“As we go back through and look at repaving streets, we’re also looking at … is there any … change that we need to consider, and what can we do now with that available space,” Stafford said. “While we don’t want to create a project by taking in every curb and adding sidewalks like we did on Fifth (Street) in this case we can, we at least just drive it a little bit differently to make it better.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 28 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
