EXPERIMENT OF ONE-WAY BROADWAY SHORT-LIVED IN STREET'S LONG HISTORY

Broadway was originally known as Harmony Street, but over the years the Cape Girardeau thoroughfare has sparked its share of conflict rather than harmony. Merchants, citizens and city officials have argued over the merits of two-way versus one-way traffic on the street.

The issue was a source of arguments for years, dating to 1956 when the street was made one-way during the city's sesquicentennial celebration.

But for most of its history, the east-west street has carried two-way traffic.

In 1976, however, the City Council decided to make Broadway a one-way street, eastbound -- from Main to Pacific -- in an effort to cut down on accidents and improve traffic flow.

A 1974 study by the traffic consulting firm of Alan M. Voorhees & Associates Inc. of St. Louis had recommended the change.

The Southeast Missourian in July 1975 conducted a readers' poll on the topic. The results: 347 people favored keeping Broadway a two-way street, and 338 preferred making it one-way from Kingshighway to Main Street.

The change to one-way traffic from Main to Pacific didn't sit well with many Broadway merchants, who argued that the move had strangled their businesses.

In November 1977, two-way traffic was restored to the section of Broadway from Main to Lorimier, but Broadway remained one way from Lorimier to Pacific.

That six-block stretch of Broadway remained one way for seven years. In September 1983, traffic again flowed two ways over the entire length of Broadway, much to the happiness of many.

"I won't pretend to tell you how to design traffic flow, but I can tell you how to make my cash register ring," Broadway businessman Richard Weber, an advocate of two-way traffic, told the City Council in March 1983.

Weber argued that a little traffic congestion would be good for business.

Many of those who wanted to continue the one-way traffic flow had contended it helped reduce accidents. But during the first three years after the return to two-way traffic, the number of accidents declined slightly along that six-block stretch of Broadway.