RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Could a plan to make a section of Cary Street a pedestrian, bike and transit-only street be in the works?
The group Richmond Connects just released its 2024 Transportation Action Plan, which includes a project that would close Carytown — the section of Cary Street between North Thompson Street and Arthur Ashe Boulevard — to cars.
The plan confirms that the data collected by Richmond Connects suggests that there is a need for safety improvements in Carytown, an area the group has identified as being dangerous for both pedestrians and drivers.
Despite the proven need for safer streets in the area, some Carytown business owners have said that they are worried that closing Cary Street to cars would make it harder for customers to get to their their storefronts or cause traffic to be diverted to other streets.
“I think we would have concerns about parking,” said Kelly Banks, co-owner of Merrymaker Fine Paper. “And that’s, of course, coming from our customers’ concerns.”
Banks told 8News that, if the city makes the decision to close Cary Street to cars in Carytown, merchants and residents would feel the impact.
“We go through, you know, kind of the loading and unloading of trucks for our merchandise. And that’s another issue I think that would have to be addressed,” said Banks. “So as they start moving forward with that study, I think we’ll have further conversations with them about, you know, some of the issues that we see and what the solutions might be to those.”
The report says that closing Cary Street would be a low-cost plan that could get done quickly – with support from businesses and residents in the area – the first step is choosing locations for weekend street closures, which could include Cary Street in Carytown or other locations.
“The city is really keeping in communication with the merchants on Cary Street,” said Banks.
The next step for Richmond Connects is studying the potential safety, traffic and business benefits and drawbacks of closing the street and finding times to test the proposal. In doing so, the city will conduct temporary tests with data collection to validate the impacts.
