Davenport’s 3rd & 4th Streets: Two-Way or Not? City Council Vote Is Next Month

Do we make 3rd & 4th Streets in Davenport two-ways instead of one? That's the ongoing question.

And next month, hopefully, we'll have an answer. The Davenport City Council is set to vote in mid-August on if the city should or should not move forward with converting the two roads into two-way stretches instead of the one-ways they are.

As we know, there are some strong opinions on this. Tuesday night, the council heard a technical review from the Davenport city engineer about the conversion, how traffic flow would be affected, according to stats and research from the city.

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One argument is that it's just dated. Back in 1952, 3rd & 4th Streets were one-ways for convenience because of nine department stores in downtown Davenport. Now, there aren't any department stores in downtown Davenport.

Kyle Carter, the Executive Director of the Downtown Davenport Partnership, told KWQC:

We don’t have that congestion anymore, the roads were converted to deal with the congestion that they had at that time. So now we’re looking at updating this infrastructure to match our modern needs. And our modern needs are very different.

Not everyone is a fan of the switch. Clarity and functionality is an issue for some. 8th Alderman Judith Lee thinks that the mixed reviews are because there are questions still unanswered. She told the news outlet:

And I think part of that is because we don’t have a clear: what are the benefits in each one of the key sections along that route, in order for people to be able to do that critical thinking.

What do you think? You'll have the chance to have your own questions answered next Tuesday, July 26th at a work session that the Davenport City Council is hosting.