Louie from Louisville writes, What's driving you crazy? The City of Louisville changed Via Appia from two lanes to a one lane road with a very wide bike lane and a very wide unusable left lane. There are no signs in place about how this is supposed to work and the striping is confusing. This has made making left turns a real challenge, especially during busy hours with traffic being pushed down to one lane. It would have been better to change the speed limit, add stop signs and/or traffic lights, speed cameras and more police enforcement. This is an expensive experiment that won't work.Before talking to the City of Louisville, I took a drive down Via Appia Way to see what the new configuration looks and feels like. The one lane configuration designates the center part of the roadway for cars. There is a double white line separating the bike lane to the right. To the left, there is a yellow line with yellow stripes in the empty space. On my drive, I experienced two tricky parts of the new road design. When I was making a left into the recreation center and to some of the other roadways, it took longer than I expected it would, especially during the busier morning and afternoon drive times. The other tricky move was making a left back onto Via Appia. You are supposed to pull out into a little holding area and then join the flow of traffic when a space opens up.After my drive, I talked to the engineering department with the City of Louisville about the changes they made. They told me, this one lane configuration simply closed the inside travel lane next to the median with solid yellow striping and added a buffer to the existing bike lane to reduce the road to one lane for each direction.The city said, the change is part of their Transportation Master Plan that was adopted by Louisville City Council in 2019. In that planm there were multiple changes suggested to Via Appia intended to reduce speeding and improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety and comfort.Via Appia is an arterial street that bisects multiple single-family residential neighborhoods. We received numerous complaints from residents and parents along the corridor about the difficulty and lack of comfort in crossing four lanes of traveling vehicles," the City of Louisville said. "This project was staffs recommendation to proactively improve the overall safety of the corridor.MORE: Read more traffic issues driving people crazyCity engineers told me, it is much easier now for people crossing Via Appia to make decisions based on just one lane of traffic in each direction versus two.The only trouble I had with the new configuration were the left turns onto Via Appia getting into that short holding area during heavier traffic. I asked the city engineers how they intended those left turns to work.We decided to add those 'merge' lanes as added comfort for drivers," the City of Louisville said. "This allows vehicles to cross Via Appia traffic coming from the left and get to a safe place before merging with traffic coming from the right, which allows drivers to make one decision at a time. Without these turn lanes, drivers would need to find a gap in traffic coming from both directions.City engineers added, they kept all the left turns off Via Appia in place and because of the reconfiguration of the roadway. Two left turns were added one at West Griffith Street and another at Via Capri.There is another part of your question Louie where you stated, It would have been better to change the speed limit, add stop signs and/or traffic lights I asked the Louisville traffic engineering department, "why not add roundabouts or traffic signals at some of the busier intersections?"Staff does not recommend signalizing the intersections for a variety of reasons, including increased travel time delays along the Via Appia corridor, as there would be a large volume of vehicles starting and stopping," the City of Louisville said. "This would also increase noise pollution and create additional emissions. Roundabouts could be a solution at select intersections and have not been completely ruled out. However, they are a very costly improvement, with a single roundabout estimated at approximately $1 million to construct. With this project, the city is trying to strike a delicate balance between comfort, safety, and efficiency.The city told me, drivers wishing to make a left turn onto Via Appia from side streets can do so in approximately 20-30 seconds. They calculated that adding a traffic signal would restrict that free movement behind a light cycle of approximately 90-120 seconds, creating significant delays, and increasing resident complaints.So far, the city has received both positive and negative feedback like yours after the design changes to Via Appia. They said, bike riders have appreciated the additional buffer and comfort level. Neighbors along the corridor told the city, they have liked the noticeable reduction in vehicle speeds. That speed reduction, as well as the new single lane configuration, has initially shown that pedestrians spend significantly less time in potential conflict with vehicles, making it safer for them to cross the road.The city traffic department told me, they will continue to monitor and collect data over the next year, but the changes are here to stay. Meanwhile, the city has plans for future pedestrian crossing improvements, such as improved directional ADA ramps and possible pedestrian activated hybrid beacons, also known as HAWK signals at select intersections.Denver7 Traffic Expert Jayson Luber says he has been covering Denver-metro traffic since Ben-Hur was driving a chariot. (We believe the actual number is over 25 years.) He's obsessed with letting viewers know what's happening on their drive and the best way to avoid the problems that spring up. 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