Business owners concerned with plan to reduce driving lanes on Maple Avenue

Some Maple Avenue business owners want the city of Dallas to halt a plan to reduce the number of lanes along the corridor.

They fear the plan could increase car traffic and hurt businesses.

However, those living nearby say the change is long overdue.

Jorge Garza looked both ways multiple times and raised his hand in a stopping gesture to vehicles that passed by as he attempted to cross Maple Avenue at Hawthorne Street on Wednesday.

“This is unsafe,” Garza said. “It’s just time to do something.”

Garza says a current proposal from the city of Dallas Department of Transportation would improve safety for the neighborhood on either side of Maple Avenue by reducing the number of driving lanes from four to two and adding a middle turn lane.

The city identified the two-mile stretch from Oaklawn Avenue to Mockingbird Lane near the Medical District as one of the most dangerous for pedestrians last year.

The Maple Avenue Safety Project also calls for adding bike lanes for the first time as part of the city’s Vision Zero Action Plan, which aims to eliminate all traffic-related deaths and reduce serious injury crashes by 50% in six years.

Rebekah Kornblum with the Dallas Bicycle Coalition says Maple Avenue is unsafe for cyclists.

“Our goal is to provide choice in your transportation options,” Kornblum said.

However, businesses along Maple Avenue, like El Rey Del Grill restaurant, fear the city may make the wrong choice by reducing lanes on a busy thoroughfare.

Raymundo Castaneda has owned and operated his business for nearly three decades and worries that reducing lanes will only increase congestion in an already congested corridor, including for emergency vehicles trying to get to the Medical District.

“In principle, it’s not a bad idea should the situation be different, but unfortunately, it’s not,” Castaneda said.

He agrees Maple Avenue needs changes to increase pedestrian safety, but he thinks more traffic lights and enforcement could accomplish this. Cutting driving lanes along Maple Avenue is the wrong strategy, Castaneda said.

“We still have a city that’s been designed for vehicles, whether we like it or not,” Castaneda said.

The city Department of Transportation is hosting a community input meeting on Friday at 5 p.m at Reverchon Recreation Center at 3505 Maple Avenue.