La Crosse’s city planner defends changes on Clinton St.

Plan, on books for five years, calls for slimming road from 4 to 2 lanes 

Ongoing criticism notwithstanding, La Crosse’s city hall still backs a controversial road slimming move for Clinton St. on the north side.

City planner Jason Gilman says the so-called road diet will not only slow traffic and help make the street safer for bikes, but should help overall safety for the street.

“The national statistics on them show that crashes can be reduced from 20-40 percent when you do a road diet,” he said.

The plan calls for slimming Clinton from four traffic lanes to two, adding a center-turn lane and bike lanes on each side. It has drawn considerable criticism from neighbors, who continue to demand the whole project get put on hold.

They have vocally criticized the city for what has been called a rushed, secret plan – a plan adopted by the city council five years ago.

Gilman says safety is chief among the concerns for the plan.

“It doesn’t warrant four lanes and then you have a lot more conflict points and potential for crashes because of the left and right turns in the travel lanes,” he said.