I didn’t think this would ever pass, but the Urbana City Council has committed to reducing Lincoln Ave to 3 lanes. I’d assume this is only from Florida Ave to University, but who knows.

This brings up a recurring argument I’ve had with some people at work who don’t think that changing lane counts and stoplight designs discourages people from using Green St now. They say that all these changes do is increase traffic delays in the altered areas. I’m starting to think that without more aggressive commuter education, changes to Lincoln Ave will prove that they are right, I’m wrong and drivers/commuters in Champaign are too stupid to learn a new way home.

Anyone who commutes daily on First St should have figured out by now that you shouldn’t even try to turn left onto Green on the way home. Go another block north, use the left turn lane and light onto Springfield and save yourself 10 minutes of trying to find a gap in the southbound traffic. But everyday on my way home, there’s a line of 20 cars trying to turn left onto Green, most of whom are just going over to Neil to go north.

I understand there are probably college students with cars that don’t know another way to North Prospect, but surely us long time residents of Champaign-Urbana and the surrounding areas can learn a new way home when we begin to notice that our commutes have gotten longer and longer….