It is far too late to fix now but one of the biggest mistakes Carbondale made was to forego the opportunity of putting a convenient underpass in downtown, unlike the monstrosity at the intersection of University, Mill and Illinois. The plan was, as I understand it, to put underpasses on Walnut and Main, allowing traffic to continue moving even when a train passes through town. This would have avoided having the 2 fire stations the city has maintained for decades.
Planning and funding for the underpasses had been secured but opposition mounted from downtown businesses who objected to the distruption of downtown traffic, and hence business, necessary to put in the underpasses. They managed to delay the start of contruction long enough that the funding eventiually got pulled, leaving the city with only the Pleasent Hill overpass for decades. If the city had managed to build these, traffic flow would have been much smoother in downtown with far less traffic backup
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