(This column first appeared in the September print edition of the Hendersonian.)
My wife and I have a word we use when a local street seems unusually congested with traffic. We say, “It’s trafficky.”
Henderson’s been awfully trafficky lately.
We notice it particularly on Green Street near downtown. We’ve lived just a few blocks away on Center Street for nearly 40 years, and untold thousands of times we’ve driven to Green Street to head downtown to go out to eat or conduct banking or visit the city building or courthouse or go to church or attend our Lions Club meetings.
And let me tell you—Green Street around there has gotten trafficky, especially during the morning and afternoon commutes. Traffic can be bumper to bumper on weekdays, especially when it has been stopped by traffic lights at Washington and Second streets—and not every motorist is mindful of not blocking cross-street intersections when traffic is at a standstill. (I had two southbound cars and a semi block First Street traffic through an entire green light recently.)
Are we just getting old and cranky, or has traffic really picked up on Green Street?
Official Kentucky Transportation Cabinet traffic counts say it really has.
In 2013, the KYTC conducted a traffic count on Green Street at Washington Street that indicated an average of 22,482 vehicles a day passed that spot.
Just nine years later, in 2022, another KYTC traffic count revealed that traffic had increased to an average of 26,073 vehicles a day there — nearly 3,600 vehicles more per day, an increase of 16%. For an already busy thoroughfare, that’s not insignificant.
But Mrs. Stinnett and I agree that Green Street traffic near downtown has worsened substantially in, oh, the past six months to a year, which coincides with the initial opening of the three Second Street roundabouts, the thought of which had alarmed some motorists. (Don’t count me among those skeptics; knock on wood. Henderson motorists seem to have learned the rules of the roundabouts quite quickly, which can be summarized simply as: If there’s a vehicle in the roundabout, it has the right-of-way and everybody else must yield.)
Might people have changed their driving patterns to avoid the roundabouts—or the so-called Truck-Eating Curve of Henderson that resulted in several northbound semi-trailer tip-overs (and inspired a Facebook page by that name)? That would be hard to verify in the absence of 2025 traffic counts for a variety of locations.
City spokespeople say they don’t have any traffic data to support the belief that Green Street traffic is on the rise.
Also, “There haven’t been any complaints to the City regarding changes in Green Street traffic,” city Public Relations Director Holli Blanford said via email.
She said Henderson Fire Chief Josh Dixon said firefighters’ response times haven’t been impacted.
Likewise, Jason Cullum, public information officer for the Henderson Police Department, said he was not aware of any delayed response times because of Green Street.
But in response to a recent post I made on Facebook, Hendersonians affirmed that they believed Green Street has indeed grown more congested.
“Green Street is a parking lot in the afternoons,” Frank Knight replied. “From Dixon/MLK all the way to the cloverleaf.”
“Please tell me you aren’t just now noticing this!” another respondent said.
Several said they suspect trucks and other motorists are avoiding the infamous curve or other Interstate 69-related construction. At least one person suspects that the temporary closure of the Blue Bridge in downtown Owensboro has increased traffic here.
Others cited other traffic disruptions, such as the recently completed replacement of two bridges on outer Clay Street/Airline Road or the ongoing replacement of aging water and sewer lines in the Washington-Alvasia street area that started last October and that Henderson Water Utility says will continue through this November.
None of this is to say that Green Street holds a monopoly on traffic snarls. Mishaps on the Truck-Eating Curve; paving and roadway reconstruction projects in Henderson and Evansville; wrecks and vehicle breakdowns on the North Strip and all manner of other anomalies have backed up traffic for miles and made untold numbers of people late for appointments or work (or maybe left them worrying that the ice cream they just picked up at the grocery will melt before they get home).
If my lamenting that Green Street has become awfully trafficky confirms (to borrow a phrase from Journey) that I’m just a small-town boy, so be it.
But I’m not the only one. As one native Hendersonian who drives Green Street daily commented on my Facebook post, “I miss my small hometown …”
