Downtown made more 'user-friendly' with two-ways

Oklahoma City officials have decided to make downtown more user-friendly by converting some one-way streets to two-way streets.

Wednesday, May 14th 2008, 8:36 pm

By: News 9


By Alex Cameron, NEWS 9

Oklahoma City officials have decided to make downtown more user-friendly by converting some one-way streets to two-way streets.

"A lot of times what happens is people come the wrong way down walker and the wrong way down sixth," Ali Raza said. He owns a business at the intersection of Sixth St. and Walker.
Raza said there's an accident at the intersection at least once a week.

The city plans to convert those streets, or at least a portion of them, to two-way. By doing so, it should cut down on both confusion and the number of accidents.

David Moss owns the property at that intersection and said the one-way streets have hurt business.

"Nobody comes downtown because they can't get around," Moss said. "They don't know how to get around because all the one-way streets are too confusing."

Oklahoma City Public Works director Dennis Clowers agreed the changes are needed, but points out there is a trade-off of access for service.

"The one-way streets will have a higher level of service," Clowers said. "They'll carry more traffic, but the access is not as good, and vice versa."

Works on the conversions has already begun at Sixth St. and Fifth St., Hudson Ave., Harvey Ave., and Robinson Ave.

Officials said the majority of the conversions should be complete within a year.

"It's not major construction and hopefully won't be inconvenienced a whole lot during the process," Clowers said.

Some of the conversions are already complete, including Walnut Street.

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