A group of people, identifying themselves as the Bankhead business community, plans to petition the city of Carrollton. The petition will urge decision makers to not change the current traffic pattern and lane structure along Bankhead Highway.

The city has proposed reducing Bankhead Highway from five lanes to three lanes as part of a new beautification project. City officials said the lane reduction would create an opportunity to provide sidewalks with a landscaped separation from the roadway along both sides of the street and bicycle lanes next to the roadway. The city said that the vision for this corridor is to create a space that becomes a destination where Bankhead Highway is used less as a throughway.

Those against the lane closures admit that improvements are necessary to the road and area. However, state that any improvements should not degrade the “level of service” for traffic.

The petition asks that the current traffic pattern and lane structure remain. Instead it should be supplemented with median island landscaping, utility simplification and signage improvements.