Changes are coming to Lake Drive in Shorewood after the Village Board unanimously voted to reduce the stretch north of Capitol Drive from four lanes of traffic to two.
Now the same idea is proposed south of the intersection and opinions are split.
"I think it's a great idea," said Tanner Teipel, Shorewood.
"It's already a risk," said Kevin Blackwell, Shorewood.
The outside lanes will be used for biking and parking. Diane Jakubowski is on Shorewood's pedestrian and bicycle committee, the group that initiated the first lane change.
"A lot of people want to enjoy obviously the lakefront bike ride and there's this section here in Shorewood that gets quite dangerous," Jakubowski said.
But Jakubowski wants to see research before deciding how she feels about doing the same thing south of Capitol.
"There is a greater impact on traffic on the side roads south of Capitol that just hasn't been studied so I would be sensitive to the concerns," Jakubowski said.
Others are all for it.
"I feel like it's a one lane. It's kind of smooshed if you try to pass somebody on the other side anyway so I would say make it one lane so it's consistent all the way through," Teipel said.
Some neighbors are not in favor of any kind of lane reduction, worried it will mean more impatient drivers taking side streets.
"Come rush hour it's not safe to have your kids running outside because people are flying down that street," Blackwell said.
Brian Schroder of Glendale sees both sides.
"It would be nice to just have the two lanes to slow traffic down a little bit and have more parking and bike coming through, but...I can understand people who drive it every day would get sick of the bottleneck and traffic issues," Schroeder said.
The project will no longer allow drivers to park on the east side of the T-intersection at Lake Drive. This allows cars to pass on the right when drivers are turning left onto Lake.
The first part of the project is slated for a planned resurfacing project sometime between July and September. It will take two to three weeks. The second phase of the project is still up for debate.
