A streetscape project on Ingersoll Avenue, just west of downtown Des Moines, has been a long time in the making. Now that part of it has been completed, the results are less than hoped for.
The Des Moines Register reports that business owners along Ingersoll, including former mayor Frank Cownie, are worried about the changes. Dozens of parking spaces have been lost and right-of-way has been handed over to bike lanes between MLK Parkway and 28th Street.
The pro-streetscape group’s executive director told the Register that creating a more “pedestrian-friendly” area “actually enhances retail and restaurant activity.”
A 2014 document from the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Authority (PDF) outlines the changes to Ingersoll. In 2009, the Des Moines City Council approved reducing part of Ingersoll to three lanes (one direction and a center turn lane) despite “considerable opposition” from businesses. Polls on one slide show 60% of those surveyed who live or have a business on Ingersoll were strongly opposed before the change, and afterward, 44% said the city should “definitely change it back to 4-lanes.”
Since then, the council has continued with the “complete streets” vision that includes wider sidewalks, bike lanes on both sides, and bus pullouts. Ingersoll west of MLK Parkway certainly was/is in need of a complete rebuild, but some of the parallel parking spaces that were available in the past decade are now being removed.
In April, Axios reported that the easternmost part of Ingersoll will get the road diet without the rebuild, turning five lanes to three and restriping for bikes.
“Avoid ‘bike lanes vs. businesses,'” the 2014 document warned, but that’s precisely what happened.