Louisville Mojo: Goldsmith LN--NOT a four-lane street, but drivers act like it

(Please note that this is updated on 1:25pm Sunday from initial posting to correct some facts.)

I actually met someone for the first time tonight who had been reading this blog before meeting me first.

She found my information about the Farnsley Park Sprayground useful. She also liked my July rant about Brent Ackerson's e-mail about the Sprayground dedication--her e-mail was also a day late. The reader feedback was a golden if not divine opportunity.

She and her husband gave me two different blog ideas about important issues in their part of the neighborhood (Goldsmith Lane near Boys Haven which would be about the 2500 block).

The problem:Goldsmith Lane traffic by Boys Haven.

Here is a link to a good google map of the street.

Goldsmith Lane map

(Or, if that does not work go here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Goldsmith+Lane,+Louisville,+KY+40220&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=33.435463,62.226563&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Goldsmith+Ln,+Jefferson,+Kentucky&ll=38.206488,-85.663233&spn=0.032373,0.060768&z=14)

Their biggest concern in that part of the neighborhood is traffic on Goldsmith--it goes too fast and too many drivers think that stretch of Goldsmith Lane is a four-lane street. She has almost been hit twice, while just making a right turn into her own driveway by people trying to pass on the right.

Goldsmith Lane Distinctives: a rabbit chase.

Goldsmith Lane through the Bon Air Neighborhood is an interesting street. When we first moved to the area, we found it confusing.

Anyway Goldsmith LN actually is like a "crooked L" between Bardstown and Hikes Lane.

Between Bardstown Rd and Bon Air Avenue it is a wide street with a speed limit of 35 miles per hour. There is a double yellow line down the middle (which means you are NOT suppose to pass on the left).

If you are going east bound off of Bardstown you have a merging lane probably in part due to the Southbound left turn lane off of Bardstown Rd. It accomodates two (2) lanes of vehicles wanting to turn onto Goldsmith. You must merge left by the time you are in front of the Dairy Queen/Goldsmith Business Center or you run into a power pole because Goldsmith narrows by about a car width.

By the time you hit the intersection with Bon Air Ave (the 2900 block), you have to veer to the right and slow down to the speed limit of 25 miles per hour and adjust to a much narrower (almost country highway) two lane road that also does have a yellow double-line. I swear that people are still doing 35 during this squeeze.

By the time you get to the next intersection (the 3200 block), if you want to stay on Goldsmith, you have to turn right or southbound. You do not have to stop, but those going northbound on Goldsmith do.

If you do not turn, you find yourself on Del Rio and in front of the Bon Air Manor Shopping Center (like a few people have over the years--who have asked me how to get to St. Pius?). If you make the mistake to turn left, you are now on beautiful Ada Lane in the heart of Bon Air Estates.

Anyway, assuming you make the correct right turn, you are now on a wider two lane road with a speed limit of 30 miles per hour, and yes, this too does have a double center-line with no passing.

When you get in front of the schools (the 3500 block) (Seneca High School/Goldsmith Elementary and John-Paul Academy) you will have to slow down to 25 mph during the times the amber (not yellow) light is flashing, but then you also have right turn lanes on both sides so you are not too badly impeded when the amber light is off.

Goldsmith then T's off at Hikes Lane.

Some historical guesses or rants about Goldsmith Lane's quirks.

While I did not take the urban planning track, (sometimes I wish I had) I am guessing that Goldsmith Lane is the weird way it is because of a fragmentation in planning in the 1940's and 1950's--given the age of the housing stock and the school buildings with the exception of the few older farm houses (especially at the intersection of Bon Air and Goldsmith).

I get the feeling that the Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission at that time was a bunch of good-old boys willing to do whatever the developers were doing at the time because it was progress.

My other guess is that the then owner of the the old farm house at the corner of Bon Air and Goldsmith was a holdout for a higher price, and that slowed down a particular developer's plan for a nice, straight line of houses between what was to be Bon Air and Goldsmith.

You would like to have thought that they would have made Goldsmith a much more uniform street with a consistent width and layout?

But then Urban Planning is not exactly rational--it's political! Just because something would make logical sense does not mean that those with an interest want it.

Land use decisions arise from both political and economic logic, which do not always mesh. A land owner in the academic sense wants to get as much money as he or she can for it. What is in the community interest is not necessarily in an individual's interest. Sure there is eminent domain where government can condemn land and pay a fair value for it, but it will not and cannot happen everywhere.

The lack of rationality in planning was Fredrick Engels's complaint about how badly laid out cramped London was in the 1800's). Savitch has made similar complaints about how badly Houston Texas development has been conducted where housing developers just put down developments where they have been allowed.

Back to the problem at hand.

So what can be done about Goldsmith Lane between the 2500 and 2900 block? Mind you the lady I met tonight is about to give birth and she will then have two small children in her car--to a family man like myself safety is key!

To get this debate going, my three general ideas (at this point) to address this problem of speed and inappropriate passing on Goldsmith Lane are:

1) there should a number of signs put up along this stretch of Goldsmith lane;
a) a two-way traffic sign for east-bound traffic
b) several no-passing zone signs along the stretch

2) there would be a speed reduction campaign by LMPD where they put out that solar-powered radar that tells people what their speed is

3) a third idea is the priciest where a wide median is put in between Goldsmith and Heather and the first private residence on the north side of the street. This should narrow both lanes down and slow down most of the traffic. The only down-side is that depending on the type of median, Goldsmith Lane residents living on the south side of the street to turn left into their driveways.

When I think about this problem, I am surprised that there are not more accidents along this stretch of Goldsmith.

If you think this is a problem, let's do something about it. Talk about it at the Bon Air NA meeting on November 9 at the Bon Air Library, at 6:30pm during the new business time.

ADD A COMMENT

(dismembered) sun nov 01 2009 at 4:10 pm ·


	I went to school at Seneca High School, and live close to that neighborhood. I use Goldsmith Ln. just about every other day. I fail to see why this is being made into such a big ordeal. The area between Hikes Ln, and the left hand turn to continue down Goldsmith towards Bardstown Rd, seems to have no problems, except for the traffic congestion in the morning and afternoon caused by the schools. The wide area between Bardstown Rd, and the curve at the old farmhouse is wide enough to have two lanes. Why not just paint a dotted line down the center and make it two lanes? It's a lot cheaper then building a useless median, and the residents of the neighborhood could just use the right lanes when accessing their driveways. If speed is still an issue, then I agree with police increasing their enforcement of the speed limit, and installing a solar powered radar somewhere on both sides of the street.

TwistedSister sun nov 01 2009 at 7:18 pm ·


	My son and I think too much alike. Since Goldsmith between Bardstown and the farmhouse is wide enough for two lanes on each side, why not mark it as such so lane use is clearly delineated and then post lane merge and speed change signs.

BonAirPat mon nov 02 2009 at 9:46 am ·


	Good news (or bad news depending on who you are I guess)...I have spoken to someone with the city of Louisville and when Goldsmith comes up for repaving (which will probably not be soon) we plan to aggressively lobby for bikes lanes and/or on-street parking on Goldsmith between Bardstown and Bon Air. Based on the width of the roadway, my guess is that it would accomodate on-street parking on one side and then a bike lane on BOTH sides, and then one lane of car traffic in each direction. Speed limit would be decreased to 25 or 30 because the driving lanes would shrink considerably. Hope to hear suggestions and comments on this as we get closer to the day when repaving is brought up.

BonAirPat mon nov 02 2009 at 9:53 am ·


	If you live near Goldsmith Lane, I would submit that making it four lanes (two in each direction) would only move the problems to Golsmith and Bon Air causing people to fly down the right lane so they can dive in front of slower traffic. It may also require jackhammering and construction at the bottleneck near Rose Bowl. Goldsmith Lane is a residential street and will never be a major connector, so I am strongly in favor of narrowing it and giving it an excellent "mixed use" makeover. Add some decorative curbs to clearly define the on-street parking sections and give the bikes lanes some nice markings and you will increase the usefulness of the road for ALL travelers (not just cars) and increase the property values of the homes and the surrounding area.

-Kevin- mon nov 02 2009 at 2:00 pm ·


	Goldsmith between Bardstown and the S curves is a 2-lane roadway with parking on both sides now, it should be striped that way.

(dismembered) tue nov 03 2009 at 3:11 am ·


	I still don't see why a street that will "never be a major connector" needs bike lanes, and a median down the center, and decorative curbs. It just seems to me in the economy that we live in today, this is all just a waste. You said in your original article "I am surprised that there are not more accidents along this stretch of Goldsmith". Do you think that maybe, just maybe, you are worrying about a problem that has been inflated in your own head beyond realistic limits? I have never seen an accident on this part of Goldsmith Lane. That doesn't mean it hasn't happened. But Louisville has far too many more (expensive) problems to worry about. The easiest, fastest, and less expensive solution to this problem is to make Goldsmith Ln 4 lanes.

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