BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC) released research findings on the Government Street Road Diet on Wednesday, Oct. 4.

According to BRAC, here were the key findings of the research:

  • Two years after the road diet completion, data shows that tax revenue growth for Government Street businesses has outpaced the city overall by 26%.
  • Since 2018, the average number of monthly reported traffic incidents on Government Street has fallen by 50%.

“At the core of the Government Street revamp is what’s known as ‘complete streets’ design,” said Jake Polansky, BRAC manager of economic and policy research. “Trimming the road from four lanes for cars to three, widening sidewalks, adding ADA accessibility features, and building east-and-west-bound bike lanes are all key components of complete street design.”

According to BRAC, the Government Street Road Diet displayed that tax revenues are up, and traffic incidents are down.

“Complete street components aim to make corridors like Government Street more attractive and accessible to more forms of transportation like walking, biking, and public transit,” said Polansky. “With the Government Street success story being written in front of our eyes, there’s a strong argument to be made that complete streets design principles could improve other key corridors in Baton Rouge like Essen Lane, Perkins Road, Plank Road, and Nicholson Drive, among others.”

Click here to check out the full findings from BRAC.