Tying Broad St in with the East End

Broad St is designated as the southern border of the East End neighborhood within the Inner Loop. As far as borders go it is excellent--its six lanes are quite daunting for pedestrians to cross. I use the street everyday to get to and from work, but I rarely see more than two other cars using the street. I assume Broad Street's current design originates from the Inner Loop era when city officials feared downtown would fall victim of traffic congestion. The street is a main east-west arterials in the city, but few people actually use its eastern end. This is probably because few people use the eastern portion of the Inner Loop (which the city just completed a study to fill in). Because the street was designed to quickly move high volumes of traffic in and out of the city, the streetscape on Broad St is just like that of a highway--completely void of retail or pedestrian traffic.

To bring life back into this forgotten part of the East End neighborhood, Broad St must be redesigned. The city is planning a round-about for the intersection of Broad and Broadway. I have looked at these plans and I dont believe they will do much of anything to improve the streetscape on Broad St. I believe the solution to a dead Broad St lies in changing it from a six lane divided highway (like 590) into a two lane road with street side parking (like East Ave). Here is what I imagined for Broad St:

Broad St is one of the few streets that has a bridge over the Inner Loop. Instead of having the street dead end on the portion of the loop that is sparsely used, it could be carried along Dryer Alley  to Alexander St. This connection would bring new life--pedestrian and auto traffic--to the street. Not only is resizing Broad St to two traffic lanes more appropriate for the volume the street carries, but it also is more pedestrian friendly. The land that would be freed up from downsizing the street can be used for building new street level retail operations:

Developable parcels along a right-sized Broad St