What is a Road Diet?
A road diet is a reallocation of existing road space that results in a reduction in the number of travel lanes. Hundreds of road diets have been implemented across Canada and North America since the 1970’s but they are seeing a huge raise in popularity because of the large number of benefits they have for city roads without the need for costly land acquisition.Over the years lots of research has been done and they have been proven to work successfully on roads with traffic volumes of between 10,000 and 20,000 vehicles a day.
A typical road diet entails converting a four-lane undivided to a three lane roadway, allocating the land previously used for the fourth lane for other purposes. The three lanes made up of two travel lanes and a middle two-way left turn lane. The released road space then can be used for parking, landscaping, bicycle lanes, addition or widening of sidewalks, or a combination of these features. On 43 Avenue in Vernon the space will be used to provide on-street bike lanes as shown in the typical example below: |
|
Proposed Road Diet - 43 Avenue, Vernon
The shared middle lane provides for greater left turning accessibility to business enterprise areas for both directions of traffic, without affecting through traffic movements. Vehicles making left-turns as they egress from enterprise areas also benefit from the shared middle lane as it can provide a refuge from through traffic by allowing a mid-lane merge into the original direction of travel.
Primary benefits of road diets include:
- Collision reduction
- Speed reduction
- Maintenance of vehicle capacity
- Increased safety and/or comfort for all users
Capacity is not reduced in the conversion of four-lane roadways to three-lane roadways. Efficiency is maintained because, especially at peak periods, the inner lanes on a four-lane cross-section are typically used as left turn lanes, whereas the left-turning vehicles are removed from the through lane on the three-lane cross-section.
Why 43 Avenue?
43 Avenue is an arterial road. However, it's current road width and lining is a legacy from when it used to form part of Highway 97 through Vernon before the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) built the overpass moving Highway 97. 43rd Avenue now forms the function of connecting Highway 97 to 27th Street. On 43rd Avenue the average daily traffic varies between 10,000 and 12,000 with the higher volumes being experienced towards the western end of 43rd Avenue with a maximum peak of 14,500 vehicles a day.
The 43 Avenue road diet will result in the following improvements:
