Martin Luther King, Jr., parkway
Speed limit may change on new MLK Parkway
A lot of drivers are upset over the speed limit on Wilmington's newest highway. We've heard your complaints and so has the Department of Transportation. Changes could be coming soon to the Martin Luther King Parkway. The 45-mph speed limit on the parkway may be changing soon. Many drivers think it's painfully slow, so the DOT has spent the last month studying the issue. It's an open stretch of road with very few stop lights, so drivers are puzzled as to why they have to drive so slowly. Engineers say when they designed the road they were trying to minimize the impact on surrounding wetlands, businesses and neighborhoods. That meant adding some twists and turns along the parkway, and a 45-mph speed limit to accommodate those curves. There's been public outcry over that speed limit though. The DOT thinks it may be safe to increase it, but they wanted to study the road before making anything official. Engineers say the speed limit could change later this week or next week, but it will probably only be a 5-mph increase if it does change.
Market Street traffic down 15 percent since MLK Parkway opening
It's a parkway that Wilmington drivers waited decades to see. Just one month after the Martin Luther King Parkway opened, drivers around here are already seeing noticeable benefits. The Department of Transportation has just released some very preliminary data. Now that MLK is open, they've seen a significant decrease in the volume of traffic on other major roads like Market Street. In October 2005, before the parkway opened, more than 40,000 cars a day were traveling Market Street between Eastwood Road and downtown. Those numbers have already dropped by about 15 percent, down to 34,000 cars a day. As more people incorporate the parkway into their commute, traffic on Market Street may decrease even further. That could very easily translate into fewer accidents on Market Street and less congestion for drivers. The DOT doesn't have any numbers yet on how many cars are traveling the parkway. Conservatively speaking, thousands of drivers have already started using it and many are raving about how much time their saving by using the Martin Luther King Parkway. The DOT says it may be 6 months or more before they have a really good grasp on the traffic impact of the parkway. But so far, so good.
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