Riverside Drive will return to four lanes in June, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton announced Wednesday.
The street was re-configured after Memphis in May last year with two lanes of vehicle traffic and two lanes for bike an pedestrian traffic. Officials then said the pilot project would run for one year.
“The pilot project, which includes two lanes for vehicles, and lanes for bikers and pedestrians, showed no measurable shift of vehicle traffic to alternate routes,” Wharton said in a statement. “Travel speeds were reduced inconsistently, and the number of crashes was up over the year prior.”
“Public safety is my paramount responsibility and we will use the information gathered thus far, collect more data, and come up with a more optimal configuration that could include additions such as turn lanes, and separating the two lanes of vehicle traffic with a median. In the meantime, we will return Riverside Drive to the configuration drivers are most familiar with.”
The city will review plans for Riverside Drive in 2016 after it had been completely re-paved. Officials will gather information from the public for a permanent plan for the street.
Riverside Drive will be an important (perhaps the primary) southern entry to the new Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid, city engineer John Cameron said last week.
