BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – Government Street is an area in the capital city that attracts many people. It went through what was called the “Street Road Diet” between 2017 and 2021.
“It was very controversial and a lot of people thought it would just jam everybody up with traffic and be a lot more dangerous,” said Baton Rouge Chamber senior vice president of business intelligence, Andrew Fitzgerald.
According to the Baton Rouge Chamber, reports show that Government Street is positively impacting the capital city.
Fitzgerald said, “What we found was not only did taking Government Street from four lanes to three increase the number of cars that went through there. But it was safer.”
“There were fewer accidents and it actually drove up revenue at restaurants, retail and other establishments in that part of town,” Fitzgerald said.
According to a report, Government Street sales tax revenues have gone up by 34% percent since 2016 while citywide sales tax revenues have gone up by 27%.
To view the full list of the findings, click here.
Now, Fitzgerald hopes residents will have an open mind when it comes to future road plans.
“I hope this opens people’s minds a little bit to new urban design and new urban planning concepts that they might not be familiar with. And everyone is resistant to change and I hope that this report lets them know that change sometimes, if it’s smart and well-planned, can be very good for a community,” Fitzgerald said.
