Despite Highway 77 being designated along East 12th Street, Porter Avenue continues to be a major conduit to downtown Norman. Traffic from the south and east, makes the intersection of Alameda and Porter Avenue a busy bottleneck. As a result, it is remarkable that our council wants to consider remodling that intersection into a roundabout instead of leaving it as it is, stoplight-controlled and narrowing the downtown section of Porter Avenue into two-lanes versus the present four-lane design.
When has traffic flow anywhere ever been improved by making a busy roadway two lanes wide instead of leaving it with four? Porter has become busier in the last few years because a building boom has occurred in far east Alameda and near Highway 9. Taking away half the available lanes of travel won't improve the flow of cars and trucks but only hamper their movements. Recent resurfacing (a temporary two-lane route) clearly established that any disruption of traffic flow on Porter creates a backup a quarter-mile long during the day, not even at rush hour.
Making a roundabout at the intersection, some have said, will enhance the flow. But a roundabout is one lane straight ahead, not two, and a roundabout would be asked to choke four lanes (two from Alameda and two from south Porter Avenue)off so those four lanes would have to jockey for one.
Both ideas would only make Porter Avenue worse. Leave the road as it is. Put money into improving the sidewalks along downtown Porter Avenue and abandon the roundabout plan.
ROGER GALLAGHER
Norman
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