Creation of a Downtown 'Main Street' By Reducing Arterial Travel Lanes

摘要

During the update of the city's downtown master plan, Settlers Landing Road, a major east - west arterial street, was identified as being a barrier that separated the downtown from the waterfront. This street is a 35-mile per hour, 4-lane divided facility carrying 21,000 vpd with heavy pedestrian activity with six signalized intersections. This arterial street provides easy access to the interstate from the southwestern quadrant of the city as well as a cut-through route to by-pass frequent backups on the interstate system. In addition, lack of on-street parking was seen as obstacle to serving and attracting retail businesses in the downtown. The traffic engineering analysis conducted as part of the master plan concluded that Settlers Landing Road at its current width of four through lanes and traffic volumes had excess capacity. This excess capacity presented an opportunity to "reclaim" the road and narrow each direction of travel by one lane. It further recommended the installation of on-street parallel parking and bulb outs and street trees at street intersections that would further tame the street for pedestrians and cars alike. City staff had previously studied the reduction from 4 to 2-lanes and had concluded that it would most likely worsen traffic movements along the corridor The reduced lane configuration with on-street parking was tested and the field evaluation concluded that despite overwhelming negative feedback, it was technically feasible to permanently implement the 2-lane roadway concept with on-street parking however some peak hour congestion could be expected.