I don't live in the W. 7th area, and have not seen the re-striping yet, but wanted to offer some ideas about the merits of 4-3 lane conversions, also known as "Road Diets." Road Diets have been found, under the right conditions, to actually improve the flow of traffic while reducing accident rates and making the street significantly safer for pedestrians (I recently attended a workshop on this topic). The earliest Road Diets were usually done to make additional space in the roadway for bike lanes. The additional right of way can also be used for on-street parking, wider sidewalks, boulevards, planted medians, etc.
The most common place for accidents to occur is at intersections, obviously because you have multiple turning movements and vehicles coming from multiple directions needing to use the same space. The second most common type of accident on a 4-lane road occurs when a car is stopped in the left lane waiting to make a left turn, and the car behind them either rear ends that car or side-swipes a car in the right lane when trying to move over. Pedestrian safety literature on this stuff clearly shows that the most important factor for pedestrian safety when crossing a street is the number of lanes that the pedestrian has to cross. Reducing from 4 lanes to 3 can have a dramatic effect on the number of accidents involving pedestrians. How can Road Diets reduce the number of through lanes and improve traffic flow? Other than sheer volume, traffic flow is affected most by intersections and how easily turning vehicles can get out of the way of through vehicles. The center turn lane allows left-turning vehicles to get out of the way of through vehicles. Right-turning vehicles will still slow down traffic, unless there is a wide shoulder/parking lane that doubles as a right-turn lane at intersections. There does seem to be a maximum daily traffic threshold beyond which Road Diets don't work. That limit is somewhere in the vicinity of 15,000-25,000 per day, depending on who you ask. The last traffic counts taken on W. 7th street in the area in question showed about 10,000-12,000 cars/day, well within the range of what usually works. The City of Seattle has done something like 17 Road Diets, and is looking for more opportunities. I have a list of Road Diet projects from around the country, some of them with traffic volumes as high as 23,000 per/day - the traffic volume generally stays about the same, or even goes up slightly, after the intervention. Snelling north of Ford Parkway has traffic counts that range from about 20,000 between Ford and Randolph to 46,000 at I-94. As for the areas where you have a center turn lane and no need for it (no streets or driveways to turn into), there is an opportunity to install planted medians such as the new ones on Grand at Macalester, that can help to break-up the ugly asphalt scene and give the street a whole different look and feel. Russ Stark Hamline Midway Resident and Executive Director Midway Transportation Management Organization (TMO) 1954 University Avenue, Suite 9 St. Paul, MN 55104 651-644-5108 _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
