It’s been a year since Manitowoc changed Eighth and 10th streets to two-way. Here’s how it’s gone.

MANITOWOC - It has been one year since downtown Manitowoc streets were switched to two-way traffic instead of one-way, making navigation to businesses, parks and landmarks easier for citizens and visitors.

The change affected Eighth Street and the South 10th/North 11th Street corridor between Washington Street and Waldo Boulevard. The city partially shut down the streets for nearly a month while new street lines were painted and signs were posted.

The change created quite the buzz in the community and one restaurant, Brix, held an event in which patrons were invited to choose a seat for the "historic traffic pattern change." The restaurant sits on the corner of South Eighth and Washington streets, and its street-side windows gave its patrons a close view of the cars navigating South Eighth Street as a two-way street for the first time since 1960.

"It was noticeably not as loud," Mayor Justin Nickels said of the change in traffic when the streets reverted to two-way. "Cars were just flying down, so it does force people to slow down, which doesn't make everyone happy, but it does make it safer."

Nickels said the safety data isn't "drastically different" from when the streets were one-way streets and that there have been no major crashes along those stretches.

According to the Manitowoc Police Department, there were 111 crashes on the two streets between Washington Street and Waldo Boulevard in the first year since the traffic change.

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Nickels said the change also gives people an option to avoid the downtown, especially during events like Balloon Glow, when the amount of traffic and pedestrians makes it difficult for people to drive through on their way from one end of the city to the other.

"There were thousands of people packed on the street (during Balloon Glow Aug. 18) and you didn't have to take Eighth (Street) to get north, you could take 10th (Street) out. I think that is a huge benefit," Nickels said.

Manitowoc's tourism director, Courtney Hansen, said the tourism staff has heard "positive feedback from returning visitors about the ease of navigating the downtown since the streets were converted."

Hansen also said the conversion gives people traveling a better view of local landmarks, such as the postcard mural directly above the Visitor Center on South Eighth Street.

"We love that with two-way traffic, visitors can see this mural event better," she said.

Adam Tegen, Manitowoc's community development director, said most of the feedback he's gotten about the streets since they changed has been positive.

Cathy Karl, owner of Heart & Homestead on South Eighth Street in Manitowoc, said she hasn't seen a difference in how many visitors she gets in her store.

"I think the only thing I questioned (before the change) was that all the cars that are going north have an option. Now, they don't have to come down my street," Karl said. "But I'm sure there were plenty of cars that did (come down my street) in the past and had no interest in stopping."

The one-way street system for downtown Manitowoc began in 1960, but the community and government leaders had debated the merits of a one-way street system.

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The original ordinance had the one-way configuration set for a 120-day trial run. That trial run also involved Marshall and Franklin streets, which returned to a two-way system later that same year.

Later that year, the city posed the question of whether to keep Eighth and 10th streets on-way streets to voters in a November referendum. Manitowoc citizens voted to keep the one-way streets by a 300-vote margin.

The plan to convert the streets back into two-way streets began when the city council approved the change at its August 2021 meeting.

"We have so many opportunities," Nickels said at that meeting. "People are excited about downtown again."

The city has three studies from the past 14 years that encouraged switching the streets to a two-way configuration — the 2018 Downtown Parking Analysis, the 2009 Port of Manitowoc Downtown & River Corridor Master Plan, and the 2009 City of Manitowoc Comprehensive Master Plan.

The 2018 Downtown Master Plan mentioned the one-way configuration of the streets but said there seemed to be little interest from the community in changing it.

Alisa M. Schafer is a reporter for the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter. She can be reached by email at aschafer@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc's change to two-way streets downtown resulted in 111 crashes