On a late April evening, Elsmere resident Danielle Behler joined dozens of others in a room in the basement of the Florence Government Center, seeking answers on a local road change.
“It's the fourth meeting I've been to,” Behler said.
Inside the room stood a handful of road experts and consultants, infographic posters ready, waiting to field questions and concerns from residents. And despite the fact that this wasn’t her first meeting, Behler still had a lot she wanted to know about the project.
“As of right now, I'm still not swayed,” Behler said after the meeting. “And I talked to them three times.”
The project is the Dixie Highway Reconfiguration Plan, a proposal to reconfigure part of U.S. 25 between Erlanger and Florence. This section currently has four lanes, two northbound and two southbound. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) wants to reconfigure it to install a permanent left turn lane with one lane on each side for traffic. This is primarily to address safety concerns, according to the KYTC.
“If you go look at the statewide average [of car accidents], for a four-lane section in the state of Kentucky, that is actually two times the average rate of what you would expect to see in a road that looks like Dixie Highway,” state consultant Katie Rowe said at a Florence informational meeting in late April.
But KYTC was forced to pause the project in February after significant community backlash. Since then, the cabinet has been offering informational meetings and gathering input from residents.
‘We found out on accident’
Depending on the type of road work, Kentucky is sometimes required to allocate a period for public input before finalizing a plan. This is typically necessary when the state is using federal funds for statewide projects.
But the Dixie Highway road reconfiguration is part of a maintenance project, so KYTC District 6 did not break any laws or codes by not involving the city governments and residents in the planning.
Yet when the plan became public, it was immediately followed by heavy criticism from Erlanger, Elsmere and Florence.
“I think they made a mistake in underestimating how people felt about a corridor that they travel every single day,” Florence Mayor Julie Metzger Aubuchon said.
Erlanger Mayor Jessica Fette said that city also wasn’t informed about the upcoming changes to Dixie Highway, according to a video she posted in February.
“In all honesty we found out about this project on accident,” Fette said in the video. “So I think this was going to happen without communication.”
Bob Yeager, chief district engineer, was surprised at the reaction, and said it might change the types of projects for which they seek public involvement.
“I think that's when we have to decide, not whether there's federal funds or state funds, but whether people are going to see something different,” Yeager said.
Shortly after the wave of criticism, KYTC paused the project and officials promised they would hold informational meetings.
“Public involvement is crucial at every stage of highway projects, from planning and design to construction and maintenance,” said Jake Ryle, KYTC public information officer in an email to WVXU. “Outreach efforts vary by project but may include public meetings, required hearings, direct communication with residents and local officials, and updates through media and online platforms to gather input and keep communities informed.”
What is a road reconfiguration?
The lack of initial communication has caused a lot of confusion about road reconfigurations, more commonly known as road diets — though experts are leaning away from that term.
“To communicate this in a more positive way, which is not what you're losing when you're putting something on a diet, but what you're in fact gaining by making some changes,” said University of Cincinnati Urban Design Professor Vikas Mehta.
Road reconfigurations are designed to make roads safer by lowering speed and the rate of accidents. They also redesign a road to be more friendly to different modes of transportation — something that can be difficult for places heavily reliant on cars, such as the Northern Kentucky region.
“This takes a little bit of time for people [to learn] and change their behavior, but also feel OK if they're having to drive five miles lower than before,” Mehta said. “Also see: are there more people coming out and walking and using the space?”
Road reconfigurations are a balancing act between cost, safety and speed to improve traffic flow. Transportation cabinets around the country are turning to them for a cost-effective, quick way to improve road conditions.
“All it takes is not building any new highways, not building any new structures within the highway, but just changing the lanes,” said Northern Kentucky University Professor of Construction Management Ihab Saad.
Saad also said road reconfigurations are environmentally and economically beneficial, since slower speed limits mean the road will need less maintenance and different modes of transportation help lower emissions.
“And for those small businesses, they might benefit more from the road diet than not having them,” Saad said. “Again, this is going to allow for slower traffic. Maybe people are going to stop more at these businesses.”
Reconfigurations aren’t always the solution. Mehta said these projects don’t work in places with daily traffic of more than 25,000 cars. According to a KYTC study, Dixie Highway does fall below that limit. The cabinet found an average of 16,000 to 21,000 cars travel the corridor, with a rate of accidents twice the statewide average for similar corridors.
“We're not going to be able to improve traffic operations with this, but we can improve safety and maintain traffic operations the way that it looks today,” Rowe said at the Florence informational meeting.
Yet because of the initial miscommunication, many have a hard time believing these numbers.
“But we also don’t know the other circumstances [of] why we have a higher rate,” Elsmere resident Behler said. “So [there are] other things that could mitigate that without having to do a reconfiguration.”
How residents feel now
KYTC already has adapted the plan due to resident feedback. They are adding pull-offs for the numerous bus stops along the highway and working with first responders to assure they can get by in case of an emergency.
“I think the biggest concern that we've heard is that the congestion that they see when the interstates are blocked, or the interstates are really congested,” Yeager said. “And I think that's really hard to do, we're not going to help that.”
For residents still opposed to the plan, that congestion is exactly what worries them the most.
“More people are going to be using those side streets versus going on the Dixie Highway,” said Elsmere business owner Amy Staten, who also lives in a side street off the road.
She said she already has trouble leaving her driveway due to the traffic that overflows onto her street.
“If they're claiming that it's for safety on Dixie Highway, it might increase safety there, but it's going to lessen safety on our side streets,” said Erlanger city council member Jennifer Jasper-Lucas.
Jasper-Lucas said children often walk to school on Dixie Highway and the side streets, which is another reason she is opposed to the reconfiguration.
But for other residents, the promise of safer streets for different modes of transportation, including walking, is what made them support the project in the end.
“We have a walking school district [in] Erlanger-Elsmere,” Erlanger resident Courtney Hundley said. “There's no buses, so kids either have to get dropped off or they walk. And so making it from four lanes to three lanes makes it safer for them to cross the street.”
Hundley also said safer walking streets can help small businesses get more traction; this is an intended benefit of reconfigurations.
But some of these business owners are not convinced, like Staten, whose hair salon is off of Dixie Highway.
“I'm 100 percent thinking this is going to hurt my business,” Staten said. “[Yeager] has not changed my mind. Not one bit at all.”
Others in support of the project blame the misunderstandings and misinformation spread around after Fette announced the project on Facebook.
“We're trying to convince them that their initial outrage would have been justified if all those things that they were hearing were true,” Erlanger resident Wilanne Stangel said. “But they weren't, and so they are trying to put the cart back behind the horse now.”
At the final informational meeting in Erlanger in early May, Yeager said the KYTC wants to decide on a course of action by the end of the year. For now, they will review all the feedback received during the public input period.
“We will take this information to our safety office in Frankfort and we will weigh the pros and cons,” Yeager said.
He said he hopes the plan can be finalized so the road can be resurfaced this year.
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