LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Drivers at four different intersections in Old Louisville are now all required to make a full stop before continuing down the road.
All-way stops have popped up at 1st and Burnett, 1st and Magnolia, Brook and Burnett, and Brook and Magnolia -- a change of pace from the traditional traffic signals that have existed there for years.
Now, cars are met with blinking red lights and stop signs. It's part of the city's latest effort at calming traffic in the area and preventing accidents.
"As a pedestrian, they make me feel safer," advocate Chris Glasser said. "As a driver, when I see a stop sign, I know there's no incentive to speed up. There's no light that I need to catch to make it."
The Metro's Traffic Engineering team is trying something new to get folks to slow down and make roads safer for pedestrians, bikers, businesses and drivers alike. The modifications to the traffic lights are part of a 90-day trial project.
After three months, if authorities determine overall speeds have reduced, they'll remove the traffic light infrastructure and make these four-way stops permanent.
"Our initial evaluation indicated these intersections’ roadway safety could be improved with signal removal. Our office will evaluate operations during the flash condition at these locations," a spokesperson for Metro Public Works said in a statement sent to WHAS11.
Glasser is the president of Streets for People, a nonprofit that for years has advocated for changes to the city's transit to make the neighborhoods more inviting -- including this very proposal.
"Very happy to see this change," he said, telling WHAS11 the group first brought this idea to the city in 2021. "We've all experienced it where you barely make the yellow at one light, and you know if you pick up your speed a little bit -- you're going to ease into the next light, so it just sort of takes away that incentive."
Glasser said his advocacy organization wants to be 'the tailwind, the cheerleaders' behind the change.
"Yes, please. These are great. Let's not just do these four -- let's do 10, let's do 20," Glasser said, adding he'd like to see more four-way stops across south and west Louisville, too.
In a statement sent to WHAS11, Dan Borsch, the owner of Burger Boy Diner on Brook Street, said he's been thrilled with the changes.
"It is also safer for my customers and employees, and makes it feel more comfortable to walk without cars flying by at 50+ miles per hour," Borsch said. "Louisville should be looking at every intersection where this is feasible, as it would make a huge positive impact on quality of life while saving money on operating costs."
Naturally though, some are skeptical, including one nearby business telling WHAS11 off camera that accidents have happened in front of the business before. The worry is if people can run red lights, they can run stop signs just as easily -- which our crew saw multiple times just Monday alone.
This year, the city has received millions in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation to improve road safety in corridors that see the most deadly and serious accidents, identified by Vision Zero Louisville -- who's goal is to eliminate traffic deaths on Louisville's streets by 2050.
More than $21 million in grant money is going toward refiguring roads at 10 different locations in the city, and another $7.5 million is going to fund the two-way conversion of 2nd and 3rd Streets between W. Broadway and W. Cardinal Boulevard.
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