Widening Roads Not the Route to Safety?

Sycamore Avenue between 26th and 41st Streets in Sioux Falls evidently has some problems with reckless drivers. Friday night's deadly crash follows a fatal April 2006 crash just a few blocks away that killed a motorcyclist going 80 down this city street. This morning's Argus offers an interesting observation from a witness to that motorcycle accident, Rob Hibbison:

Since the street was widened and the limit increased to 35 mph, speeding has only worsened, Hibbison said Saturday.

"Since they widened it, they've made it a two-lane race track instead of a single lane," Hibbison said. "It's just gotten ridiculously worse."

[Jill Callison, "Worst I've Ever Seen, Says Officer of Fatal Crash," Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 2007.09.30]

This is just one anecdote, not statistics, but it raises an interesting question for those of us interested in widening Highway 34 from Lake Madison to I-29: if safety is our primary concern, is adding lanes the best way to go, or might it only encourage whatever dangerous driving habits might be happening now?

Update: KELO-TV focuses on the safety issues on Sycamore, noting that after the widening of that street, residents are now calling for more stop signs [Summer Evans, "Sycamore Known for Speeding," KELOLand.com, 2007.09.30].