Uptown Dallas: McKinney, Cole Conversion

Tnexster
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Uptown Dallas: McKinney, Cole Conversion

Postby Tnexster » 12 Nov 2016 14:03

Dallas' Uptown neighborhood takes step towards two-way traffic along McKinney, Cole avenues

http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/ ... s-two.html

Dallas' Uptown neighborhood is one step closer to getting its one-way streets converted to two-way streets, which stakeholders in the Uptown Dallas Inc. public improvement district say will drive further investment into this part of the city.

The proposed $15 million plan to convert one-way traffic along McKinney and Cole avenues to traffic lanes going both north and south was approved by the Dallas City Plan Commission on Thursday.

DPatel304
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Re: Uptown Dallas: McKinney, Cole Conversion

Postby DPatel304 » 13 Nov 2016 20:53

So it's safe to assume the bike lanes are officially not happening? Definitely a huge shame. If there was one street that could have used bike lanes, it would be McKinney Ave.

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jrd1964
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Re: Uptown Dallas: McKinney, Cole Conversion

Postby jrd1964 » 14 Nov 2016 08:06

Another thing: How will the 2-waying of Cole affect cars interacting with the trolley? Will the northbound cars travel in the middle (assuming the trolley will still roll along the east side of the street)? IIRR, this change would mark the first time in the modern era that 2-way traffic and a trolley have both been on that part of Cole.

Also, will Allen be made 2-way also when Cole & McKinney change?

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electricron
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Re: Uptown Dallas: McKinney, Cole Conversion

Postby electricron » 06 Dec 2016 12:23

jrd1964 wrote:Another thing: How will the 2-waying of Cole affect cars interacting with the trolley? Will the northbound cars travel in the middle (assuming the trolley will still roll along the east side of the street)? IIRR, this change would mark the first time in the modern era that 2-way traffic and a trolley have both been on that part of Cole.

Also, will Allen be made 2-way also when Cole & McKinney change?

Excellent question. MATA could just continue to run the trains over the existing tracks as is. I assume it wouldn't be difficult to dedicate the lanes the tracks are in for the streetcars, simply with a little bit of paint and some lollipop barriers. The streetcar over the Houston Street Viaduct runs in a dedicated lane, half the time running with traffic and half the time against the traffic in the other lanes without much difficulty. MATA would be running against the traffic all the time.
Another alternative would be to reverse the direction of the loop on Cole so the streetcars will be running with the traffic, which means they wouldn't need to have dedicated lanes. This would require some track work at the split with tracks crossing one another and the potential of the streetcars crashing head on into one another, but I'm sure a written policy could be established to designate which streetcar heading would have the right-of-way to minimize that risk - or simply use signal lights at the intersection.

Therefore, it's not going to require a major investment from MATA to survive changing the streets from one way to both ways.

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northsouth
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Re: Uptown Dallas: McKinney, Cole Conversion

Postby northsouth » 07 Dec 2016 14:43

electricron wrote:Another alternative would be to reverse the direction of the loop on Cole so the streetcars will be running with the traffic, which means they wouldn't need to have dedicated lanes. This would require some track work at the split with tracks crossing one another and the potential of the streetcars crashing head on into one another, but I'm sure a written policy could be established to designate which streetcar heading would have the right-of-way to minimize that risk - or simply use signal lights at the intersection.


But then the streetcars would be running against traffic on the northern part of McKinney, so the problem would just be switched to the other street. Dedicating a lane on Cole is the easiest solution, plus most of the places people want to get on/off at are on the east side of Cole already, so moving the tracks across the now bidirectional street would be inconvenient.

LongonBigD
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Re: Uptown Dallas: McKinney, Cole Conversion

Postby LongonBigD » 22 May 2022 02:37

This project (the conversion of McKinney Ave and Cole back to two-way) has been years in the making. It has been talked about over the years in other threads. Here is the latest as reported by culturemap Dallas and a bit about the potential future of scooters in the area. The story includes links to plans, etc. Nothing new, but some may not have seen them before.

From the story, “they anticipate getting it done within 18 months.”

https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/city ... e-two-way/