Two-way Main Street discussed

For nearly half a century, Main Street traffic has flowed one way from north to south. But the formerly two-way street in downtown Cape Girardeau may be going back to its roots, even if it means moving an ornamental street clock.

Prompted by plans to make traffic changes on nearby Water Street, downtown merchants and city staff are discussing the possibility of restoring two-way traffic to Main Street from Broadway to William Street and moving the ornamental street clock presently located in the middle of Main Street at its intersection with Themis Street. The clock would be moved to a spot on the edge of Spanish Street at the foot of the Common Pleas Courthouse steps.

An engineering firm is studying a plan to make Water Street one-way southbound, running parallel to the floodwall mural that depicts the history of Cape Girardeau. The mural panels start at the north end near Broadway and proceed south to Independence Street.

If Water Street is turned into a one-way southbound street, Main Street needs to be changed either to a one-way northbound street or made two ways, said Catherine Dunlap, executive director of the Old Town Cape redevelopment organization.

Main Street wouldn't be converted to a two-way street until improvements are made on Water Street. Those improvements include converting Water Street from a two-way avenue to a one-way, southbound route, Dunlap said.

Depending on when the Water Street work is done, it could be next spring before any traffic change is made on Main Street, Dunlap said.

Main Street, the city's first shopping area, handled two-way traffic for 150 years. The city council changed it to a one-way southbound street in August 1956 in conjunction with Cape Girardeau's sesquicentennial celebration and kept it that way at the urging of downtown merchants, who at that time said the public liked the one-way route.

Downtown business leaders say any change in traffic patterns on Main Street should be made at the same time as Water Street improvements. They also said the downtown street plan would include reworking the parking lot across from Hutson's Fine Furniture store.

"It has to be a unified plan," said Dunlap. "We've got to stop doing things piecemeal."

Several downtown merchants and civic leaders favor a two-way Main Street, arguing that it would be more friendly toward customers and pedestrians.

"The whole purpose behind one-way streets is to move traffic. If you are a merchant downtown, you don't want to move traffic through too quickly," said downtown property and restaurant owner John Wyman.

Two-way streets, on the other hand, slow down traffic, he said. That would encourage more pedestrian traffic and visitor shopping, which should help sales at Cape Girardeau's downtown stores, Wyman said.

Wyman, who has studied the issue, said research shows that downtowns that have converted one-way roads to two-way streets have experienced a decrease in storefront vacancies. He said downtowns increasingly are moving away from one-way traffic.

Wyman said it also makes sense to make Main Street two ways again to accommodate motorists approaching the downtown both from Broadway on the north and William Street on the south. Traffic coming off the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge eventually will be fed onto William Street once the Fountain Street extension is completed.

Downtown leaders said the change also would mean that motorists coming into the downtown from William Street no longer have to use the parking lot across from Hutson's Fine Furniture as a thoroughfare.

Downtown jewelry store owner Kent Zickfield favors making Main Street a two-way street rather than switching it from a southbound route to a northbound route. The latter approach would prevent motorists from turning onto Main Street from Broadway, he said.

"I am concerned about how traffic flows and making it convenient for people," said Zickfield, whose family has operated a downtown jewelry store since 1939.

He favors moving the ornamental clock from the middle of the Main and Themis streets intersection to the edge of Spanish Street near the courthouse steps. "I think it would look great there," he said.

City planner Kent Bratton said the clock needs to be moved if Main Street is made a two-way street to make it easier for motorists seeking to make left turns at the Themis Street intersection. The ornamental clock was installed in the middle of the intersection in 1986 and since then has become a visible symbol of downtown redevelopment.

Main Street jeweler Roger Lang doesn't think the clock needs to be moved. "The trucks make it around as it is," he said.

Lang isn't opposed to returning two-way traffic to Main Street but said it could lead to traffic tie-ups when delivery trucks park in front of stores.

With two lanes of one-way traffic right now it isn't a problem. Motorists can drive around the delivery trucks, he said. If Main becomes a two-way street, Lang suggested, deliveries might have to be limited to early morning hours.

Wyman said delivery trucks don't pose a problem on other two-way streets such as Broadway and shouldn't pose a serious problem on Main Street.

"Just because there is a little bit of congestion, that is not a bad thing," he said.

Shoppers and visitors favor busy commercial districts, he said. "It is the busy restaurant syndrome. You want to be in a restaurant that is hopping."

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123