Does anyone out there have experience with converting four lane roads into two- or three-lane roads in downtown areas? Our main street is also a state highway and we're looking at different alternatives to handle traffic/pedestrian issues during rush hour. Keep in mind that this is a pretty small town of about 30,000 people, so when i say rush hour, I mean "rush hour".
The instant response that our city decision makers have had is to suggest removing the on-street parking and adding a fifth turning lane; I'm having a panic attack to that idea and my argument is that the cars create a nice buffer, we need walking customers downtown, etc.... This is pretty classic pedestrian-friendly streets versus highway development stuff- I'm just looking for a few examples I can point at to show that keeping the downtown free of speedsters is a good idea.
The alternative that I'm trying to put together right now is to drop from four lanes to two, put a median down the center of the road, and add turning lanes. Keep the traffic flowing along the main road and divert left-turning cars into the turn lanes. Its expensive, but since I'm just the graduate student intern, I'm allowed to have idealistic suggestions.
Here's (hopefully) a few pictures to give you the idea of the area I'm talking about:
Fixed by Giff
I've tried to insert some pictures above to give an idea of what we're dealing with, but I'm not sure I did it right. If they don't turn out, try this link:
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...=20&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N
If that doesn't work, just picture small town america.
Thanks!
The instant response that our city decision makers have had is to suggest removing the on-street parking and adding a fifth turning lane; I'm having a panic attack to that idea and my argument is that the cars create a nice buffer, we need walking customers downtown, etc.... This is pretty classic pedestrian-friendly streets versus highway development stuff- I'm just looking for a few examples I can point at to show that keeping the downtown free of speedsters is a good idea.
The alternative that I'm trying to put together right now is to drop from four lanes to two, put a median down the center of the road, and add turning lanes. Keep the traffic flowing along the main road and divert left-turning cars into the turn lanes. Its expensive, but since I'm just the graduate student intern, I'm allowed to have idealistic suggestions.
Here's (hopefully) a few pictures to give you the idea of the area I'm talking about:


Fixed by Giff
I've tried to insert some pictures above to give an idea of what we're dealing with, but I'm not sure I did it right. If they don't turn out, try this link:
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...=20&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N
If that doesn't work, just picture small town america.
Thanks!