Please No!

I hope that the community can be heard before the city decides to move forward with making the decision to alter the flow of traffic on 7th Street. When I first heard of the idea that 4th and 5th would be altered the way that they have been, my first thought was "surely that is just a rumor, they wouldn't do such a thing with all the traffic we have" and yet, here we are and it is worse than I thought it would be. Traffic across the valley is consistantly increasing and we continue to see more and more housing developments going up, therefore bringing in even more traffic. The mess that is now 4th and 5th Street does not have a better flow and truly seemed to reduced the number of parking spots along the downtown stretch. The parking that is available is very close to the lane of traffic and exiting the vehicle is so much riskier now. I also do not feel that there is a need for on road parking along 7th street from Grand Avenue to North Ave. Not to mention, that I have not seen a single bike in the new bike lanes and I travel from the south of town every day on 5th street. That is not to say that the bike lanes are unnecessary but the locations of the lanes should be reconsidered. There are several other north to south streets that are not the main corridor for vehicles going into the other parts of town that would be safer alternative for bike lanes. I really hope the city will hear our pleas to leave 7th street alone. We are already flocking more to 7th as it is to avoid 4th and 5th! There are some great alternatives that would not create such chaos and displeasure in the community.