With all due respect, I think you are wrong about how the city "billed it." The following was from the original recommendation ( http://www.eugene-or.gov/DocumentCenter/View/16359 ) to go to three lanes: "Potential motor vehicle impacts include peak hour travel time increases that most respondents considered to be acceptable. ... The transportation analysis findings for Alternative 3 also identify potential benefits such as reduced speeding, improved safety, and more comfortable left‐turn movements."

I was at some of the community meetings. All this was discussed and weighed. I know it's trendy to hate bureaucrats and such, but I think you could also say that what these people (who are not just bureaucrats but also professionals who probably know a lot more about how traffic moves than you or I ever will) predicted is essentially what happened.