LEWISTON — A study of downtown traffic patterns recommends narrowing several collector roads to make room for biking and walking paths, according to the latest draft.

The study calls for reducing Cedar Street’s four lanes to two, just before the Lown Peace Bridge; re-striping Bates Street near the Oak Street bus station to create dedicated bus and bike lanes; and broadening the sidewalk and landscaping at Ash and Canal streets.

The study, being done by Gray’s Gorill-Palmer Consulting Engineers, is designed to develop recommendations to improve efficiency and safety for vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian traffic in Lewiston’s downtown, specifically the area from Main Street east to Adams Avenue and from Canal Street up to Webster Street.

“The purpose of this study is to improve movement through this area, for vehicular traffic, bicycles and pedestrians,” engineer Randy Dunton said. “We’re looking for feedback to see if there is anything we missed, or see if there is anything we should be looking at that we are not looking at.”

Dunton’s group is writing the study for the Androscoggin Transportation Resource Center and the city. They are expected to issue a draft in April and host public meetings on the study in May.

Dunton said the changes to Cedar Street call for having one lane in either direction across the bridge.

“The bridge is 40 feet wide, and if you observe traffic going across it now, you will see the vehicles staggered themselves,” he said. “They do not go across side-by-side. They do this, I’m guessing, because the lanes are so narrow, they don’t feel comfortable going across side-by-side. So it’s effectively operating as a two-lane bridge now.”

Dunton also recommended putting a crosswalk near the Oxford Street intersection. Making the road two lanes there should make it much more passable for pedestrians.

Changes for Bates Street include reducing the four-lane road to two travel lanes. The two lanes closest to the bus station would become a dedicated bus lane and a bicycle lane.

Changes to the southwest corner of the Canal Street parking garage would require Ash Street traffic to stop at Canal Street.

“This would turn Ash Street into a T-intersection as opposed to a sort of free-flowing left,” Dunton said. “This forces these drivers on Ash Street to stop — as they are supposed to do — and wait for a gap in traffic to make their left turn.”

That creates conflicts between drivers as they try to merge.

The solution is to narrow the lanes in front of the garage.

Dunton also called for more consistent crosswalks, centerlines, road edges and parking zone striping, as well as better direction signs and handicap-accessible ramps.

A group of 14 city officials and residents listened to the report, and they agreed with most of the findings.

But they disagreed strongly with a report recommendation to remove traffic lights on Bates Street at Ash and Pine streets and on Lisbon Street at its intersections with Ash, Pine and Chestnut streets.

Traffic counts at those intersections show the lights might be necessary, Dunton said. But city officials disagreed, saying that the current traffic patterns worked.

“I think right now Lisbon Street works fine,” City Councilor Mark Cayer said. “It works for pedestrians, it works for right-hand turns at the Pine and Ash street intersections. But overall, I think the flow of Lisbon Street works real well, and I have real concerns about taking out any of the signals you mentioned.”

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