Plan to reduce Maple Avenue to 2 lanes has business owners, residents at odds

DALLAS – Business owners on Maple Avenue in Dallas are frustrated about a plan to reduce the number of traffic lanes from four to two. However, some residents in the area argue the change is needed.

The change would affect Maple Avenue between Mockingbird Lane and Oak Lawn Avenue.

The two lanes that are being removed will be converted into a turning lane and a bike lane in each direction.

“It’s going to kill some of these businesses here,” said Martin Guajardo, the manager at Avila’s.

Guajardo believes cutting the number of traffic lanes in half will create traffic jams that will drive away his customers.

“A lot of our business comes from the Medical District, Downtown, Oak Lawn Heights,” he said. “They have very limited time to come and eat – an hour usually. They’re gonna be stuck in traffic for 30 minutes of that. It’s really going to hurt business. And a lot of these businesses, they are all mom and pops.”

The city of Dallas said it is proposing the change to make Maple Avenue safer.

According to a city presentation, Maple Avenue between Hudnall Street and Oak Lawn Avenue tops the list of city streets with fatal or severe injury crashes involving pedestrians.

Jorge Garza lives in the area and said he’s been asking the city to do something to make Maple Avenue safer for years.

“People have died here,” he said. “These drivers become very aggressive.”

Garza said crossing Maple Avenue is next to impossible.

“He has the best chicken tacos that I can find in town, and I cannot walk the six blocks. My wife and I come down, and when we come across, there are at least three intersections where we’re not safe,” he said.

Garza believes the changes will not only improve safety but also the quality of life.

But the business owners see it differently.

Guajardo said the businesses in the area are geared toward drivers, not pedestrians.

“They’re not going to walk. It’s not really a walking area. They’re not going to walk with bags full of groceries from the grocery store down the street. They’re not going to carry their laundry baskets and walk to the laundromat. They’re gonna be driving. And it’s going to be restricting access to all of these businesses up and down Maple.”

And what has frustrated a lot of business owners is that the city never notified them about the proposed changes. They are just now finding out about it two and a half months after the deadline for public comment.

“We didn’t know anything about it,” he said. “My wife had seen it on a TikTok. My brother sent me something also. We’ve talked to a few people up and down the street. Nobody knew about it.”

A meeting was held Friday afternoon between the city’s transportation department and the stakeholders. There’s no word yet on the outcome.

Construction was set to begin in about a year.