About that “temporary” closing of the one block of Austin Street between 13th Street and Sunshine reported in the Star on Saturday.
A far less intrusive solution to the traffic problem there might be to reduce that one block of Austin to a single one way lane from 13th Street to Sunshine, making it sort of a turn-around lane like found on Loop 499.
That would permit cars to continue turning right onto Sunshine from 13th (and avoid further clogging the intersection at Sunshine), and more importantly, would prevent drivers from making the precarious dash across six lanes of Sunshine to reach 13th from Austin, which is the main danger here.
Completely closing that one block of Austin will simply push traffic onto Bowie and Cardinal Streets.
M. Dailey Harlingen
