STANFIELD — Oregon Department of Transportation employees worked hard on Thursday to convince Stanfield residents they would benefit from having fewer lanes on Highway 395 through town, but there were still skeptics in the crowd.

One man argued with engineers for several minutes in the middle of the presentation before storming out of the meeting.

“If nothing’s broken why are you trying to fix it?” he asked before leaving.

During 2021 ODOT plans to grind the top 2 inches off of Highway 395 from Hermiston through Stanfield and replace it with new pavement. As part of the project, funded through ODOT’s general fund, they will be adding bulb-outs at crosswalks, ADA-compliant wheelchair ramps and other improvements through Stanfield.

The department has proposed a “road diet” through downtown Stanfield as well, taking Highway 395 down from five lanes to three. The curb-to-curb width of the highway would remain the same, but the road would be re-striped to include a center turn lane and one travel lane in each direction instead of two. The extra space would turn into bike lanes and wider parking.

Project manager Bryan Strasser said ultimately the decision was up to the city — ODOT wouldn’t force it on the community if the city council voted no. But he said they felt a responsibility to share what the engineering and research showed was the best option.

“If we lived here we would want it done,” he said.

He and engineer Kevin Haas described benefits ODOT had seen in other road diets, including Milton-Freewater, Cave Junction, Port Orford and Ashland.

Haas said there had been a 19% to 47% reduction in crashes where the number of lanes had been reduced. People weren’t trying to make lefthand turns over so many lanes, they weren’t sideswiping each other and pedestrians weren’t in as much danger of being hit when one vehicle stopped for them but another tried to pass because they didn’t see the pedestrian.

He said other cities had been skeptical too, but found traffic actually flowed better with the single lane in each direction and now people were thanking ODOT for the change.

A couple of attendees voiced their support of the proposal, referencing the safety of their children walking to school and the opportunities for drivers to notice local businesses if they slow down.

Others, including city councilors and the mayor, asked detailed questions during the two-hour meeting and expressed concerns that the proposed change would create a bottleneck and make it more difficult for residents pulling out onto the highway. Councilor Scott Challis asked whether the other communities has as short of city blocks on their highway as Stanfield, or as much truck traffic.

“With the short blocks and heavy trucks we’re going to have some backup. … Not trying to bring you down, but I think we have a different scenario here,” he said.

Others said much of the traffic through Stanfield was commuter traffic, and they didn’t want to unnecessarily delay people on the way to their jobs. Mayor Tom McCaan also said he wasn’t sure two lanes would actually slow people down, and referenced his days on the police force decades ago when Highway 395 was only two lanes.

“We’d catch people going through at 70 miles per hour in the middle of the day,” he said.

Haas said the brief road diet through the center of Stanfield would be a much different scenario than the old two-lane days. The center turn lane would keep people from getting backed up behind someone trying to turn, and he said people should get less impatient when the three-lane configuration was only for about a mile instead of “making people wait 20 miles to pass a truck.”

ODOT is leaving the choice of a road diet up to the city of Stanfield — a decision city councilors have yet to make. Challis said he was asking so many questions because he was trying to make an informed decision.

“I want to commend you guys — the council, staff and general public — because you’re asking the right questions,” Haas said.

He encouraged them to speak with Milton-Freewater city officials about how they liked their new road diet, and also reminded the council that the striping would be relatively easy to undo if the new configuration didn’t work out.