Naples explores plans to reduce lanes on US 41

A new project on a busy road in Naples has some business owners and drivers frustrated.

The city is looking into plans to shrink part of U.S. 41 from six lanes down to four. It would happen between 7th Avenue North and 5th Avenue South in Naples.

It’s just an idea at this point, but the city hopes it could reduce lanes in order to make way for other forms of transportation, like biking and walking.

Right now, there’s a mixed reaction about the plan to pinch parts of this main road in downtown Naples.

One local resident, Heather Waldorf, says it’s time to make room for people on foot. Others, like Bill Sullivan, say they are totally against it. And he’s not the only one; there’s already a petition going around to put an end to the idea.

Michael Vance, who owns a tech business downtown, says slowing down cars could be beneficial to his business, but it’s not worth all the backups and bottlenecks it could cause.

The Department of Streets and Storm Water will present the study to the city council in  March.

Neighbors will have to wait to see what’s going to happen until then.