Dean Tekell, New Iberia's traffic engineer, was not the only person to deliver ideas to the City Council concerning the flow of traffic in downtown New Iberia.

Residents John Berard and Keith Lapeyrouse appeared before the council with their own renditions of how the traffic flow should be changed.

Berard's main concept in his design to improve downtown traffic flow and increase parking was to close off the northbound lane of Bridge Street between Main Street and Serret Alley to allow additional downtown parking.

Advertisement

Serret Alley traffic would then flow northward from Main Street to get to the Duperior Street bridge, while the traffic coming south across the bridge would turn right onto Burke Street and then Left onto Iberia Street to cross through downtown.

"When people are coming from the north side of the bayou and they are trying to make a left turn into that alley to get across Main Street, sometimes you have to wait a long time," said Berard.

Unlike the city's initial idea to one-way Julia, French and Iberia streets on the blocks between Main Street and St. Peter in alternating directions, Berard's plan would leave those routes untouched.

Lapeyrouse's idea, which appeared to be a crowd favorite, was presented with the idea to make the block squared off by Main, Julia, St. Peter and Iberia streets the "town square" and have traffic rotate counter-clockwise around the area. This, he said, would make the traffic flow smoother for people who are trying to get downtown as well as those who are simply trying to move through the area.

Lapeyrouse said that his plan would work well because all left turns would be eliminated, thus preventing the congestion of having cars waiting to turn into oncoming traffic.

He would also like to see Iberia Street as a one-way in the direction opposite of what is currently proposed. Lapeyrouse believes that making Iberia one-way from Main to St. Peter would be more logical for those trying to approach the parish courthouse.

"Iberia Parish needs to access Iberia Street because that's where parish government is located," Lapeyrouse said.

Tekell said that the idea to designate one-ways for use in creating more parking is a good idea, but it is the determination of which direction the one-way streets should be that will make the biggest difference in the city's response.

His plan includes making Iberia Street one-way from St. Peter to Main. Julia and French streets would travel in the opposite direction.

"One of the complaints about this idea is about access to the courthouse," said Tekell. "Iberia Street does bring you to the courthouse, but French Street will bring you right around to the parking lot."

Tekell said that he created his plan from an engineering standpoint weighing the pros and cons of each possibility. His top priorities were eliminating left turns, improving pedestrian safety and creating more parking spaces.

With all three of the proposals being considered, the council asked to conduct a downtown walk through during a high

traffic time to better grasp which directions the one-way streets should be heading. The council will revisit the proposals to select the best one at that time.