When State Street went from one-way to two-way in in 2022, but gut instinct was that there was no way it was ever going back to one-way. Why give a consulting company a truckload of money to advise you on what you should do and then reject the advice. So, it was no surprise that this summer, the changes were made permanent after years of "research" and gathering more information. I'm happy to hear it barely passed (4-3) and that three of the four had the right idea, that the conversion was a bad idea. I went on Google Streetview, to the corner of Boardman and State, and those images (as of August 2026) still show when State was one-way. It looks so nice, with both lanes available so if you have a cyclist or Subaru (they both go the same speed) in one lane, you can easily pass them. Oh, the good old days before the city wasted money on consultants.
Apparently, we have changes coming to how State Street is configured. For just another $20,000, we get more advice from consultants! I hope Progressive Companies sends nice Christmas gifts to the TC commissioners for all the money they send their way for decisions they can't make themselves. The best possible outcome - convert it back to one-way - was of course not on the table. Instead, we have the best of the rest, which was add a left turn lane. The intersections of State and Cass and State and Union are terrible now because of the change, so the least they could do is put in a turn lane.
Let's see, bad ideas... adding a bike lane is terrible. What else? Oh, the article mentions that one of the upsides of the conversion was more parking revenues on State Street. They then mention the possibility of removing parking spaces to increase traffic flow. You know what was really increase traffic flow? Having both lanes go the same direction like they did for decades. But I suppose you would have needed to pay the consultants more to get that answer.