road diets

Year: 1999
Region: North America
Country: USA, Canada
Location: Kirkland, Washington, Lewistown, Pennsylvania, East Lansing, Michigan, Toronto, Ontario, Bellevue, Washington, Santa Monica, California and Seattle, Washington

Description

Road diets are the process of reducing the number and width of lanes on roads, making them more multi-modal by improving bicycle and pedestrian facilities along the roadway and safer by slowing traffic speeds. There are a number of variations, including converting roads from four lanes to three lanes (two one-way lanes plus a shared left turn lane in the centre) or from four lanes to two lanes, with bike lanes, widened sidewalks or medians.

Other Impacts & Co-Benefit

Qualitative observations that the environment for walking, transit and bicycling has improved.

For 17 documented cases of street conversions, in only two did the average daily traffic (ADT) decline after the change—in all others, ADT stayed the same or increased.

Reference

Burden, Dan and Peter Lagerwey. Road Diets: Fixing the Big Roads. Unpublish article for Walkable Communities. Orlando, FL: Walkable Communities, Inc., 1999.