Economic impact of Government St Road Improvement Project (Road Diet) in Baton Rouge

Several years ago, a controversial (at the time) plan was put forward for a complete revamp of busy Government St in Baton Rouge. Government was a four lane road that connected downtown with mid-city Baton Rouge ending around Lobdell. Government St was always congested as there was no dedicated center turn lane and there were bus routes running as well.

All food pictures are from Bistro Byronz!

Lots of accidents, lots of congestion and lots of people avoiding driving down Government if they could help it - which was not good at all for the retail businesses/restaurants located up and down the street.

The proposal was to remove the 2 interior lanes and replace them with medians and dedicated turn lanes - leaving the 2 outside lanes as through traffic. In addition, there would be dedicated bike lanes added along with sidewalks. Predictably when the plan was announced it was roundly panned by the general public and even mocked. Fortunately the city planners moved forward with the project

Now that the project is complete and has been in place for a bit, the numbers show it to be a rousing success! Traffic counts are actually up on the road, accidents have been substantially reduced, sales tax collected from businesses along Government have grown at a rate higher than the City/Parish collection rates and all sorts of new businesses have elected to open up shop up and down the road!

The Baton Rouge Area Chamber is put out a more detailed analysis of the benefits of the Road Diet for Government Street. Click here to access their report on Substack.

I can personally attest as to how much improved the driving/shopping/eating experience is along Government St. I live in mid-city Baton Rouge and drove on Government pre and post project and I give it an A++++!

Some of my favorite restaurants are located on Government such as Bistro Byronz, Spoke and Hub, Curbside Burgers, Mid-City Beer Garden & La Carretta to name a few.

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