A little after midnight Monday, after the 2019 Iowa Arts Festival wrapped up, Iowa City road crews closed Clinton Street to re-paint pavement lines. The new striping integrates bike lanes, condensing the four lanes of traffic to just two lanes with a permanent middle turning lane.
Jason Reichart, a civil engineer with the city, called the change "pretty standard," consistent with the conversion effortsthe city is undertaking on roads like Mormon Trek.
"(The changes) will make the corridor operate more safely," Reichart said. With the University of Iowa on one side and the pedestrian mall on the other,safety countermeasures like a "road diet"become all the more important for the public.