Slowing down Davenport

After spending a week last August studying how to improve the downtown of Davenport, Iowa, Jeff Speck presented recommendations aimed at slowing the vehicular traffic and making the place more comfortable for pedestrians. The Washington, DC-based planning consultant found downtown traffic lanes 13 feet wide, which he noted are “appropriate to speeds of 55 to 70 mph.” “No wonder people speed through your downtown,” Speck wrote recently in the Quad-City Times. He recommended narrowing the lanes, converting one-way streets to two-way, and installing angled parking on some streets. Those inexpensive alterations could make the city center more attractive, spurring downtown business and activity, he said. Asked by New Urban News about the result of his assignment in the 99,000-population city, Speck replied: “I helped convince them to commission a citywide transportation and parking plan that will implement many of my recommendations.”