Road Diets

Road diets can impact Council Highways Maintenance programmes and be part of better placemaking strategies.

Transcript

1. Road Diets Adam Reynolds CycleBath Active Travel Consultant
2. Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. Placemaking capitalises on a local community's assets, inspiration, and potential, with the intention of creating public spaces that promote people's health, happiness, and well being. Placemaking is both a process and a philosophy.
3. Road Diet A placemaking technique in transportation planning whereby the number of travel lanes and/or effective width of the road is reduced in order to achieve systemic improvements.
4. Value Engineering Value engineering is a systematic and organised approach to provide the necessary functions in a project at the lowest cost. Value engineering promotes the substitution of materials and methods with less expensive alternatives, without sacrificing functionality.
5. Road Diets + Value Engineering = Placemaking + Long Term Maintenance Savings
6. BaNES Highways Capital and Structural Programme • Local safety schemes • Managing Congestion • Safer Routes to Schools • Pedestrian Schemes • Traffic Management Schemes • Local Growth Fund Schemes • Better Bus Area Fund schemes • Street lighting programme • Highways Structures Programme • Carriageway Resurfacing & Major Re-Construction • Carriageway Micro Asphalt Surfacing • Carriageway Surface Dressing
7. BaNES 2016-2017 Budget (Road diet applicable) • Bath £2,198,712 (£1,088,462) • Bathavon £409,506 (£174,256) • Chew Valley £412,503 (£412,503) • Keynsham Area £498,089 (£363,739) • Somer Valley £765,990 (£646,040) • Misc £1,250,000 (£360,000)
8. Why are road diets key to maintenance programmes? • It’s free and achieved through paint. • Enable modal shift from cars, reducing congestion. • Eliminates pavement cycling. • Creates public space from over-engineered roads. • Significantly improves safety for walking and cycling. • Promotes health, happiness, and well being in the local community. • Councils resurface 3% of their roads each year! Think in decades! • Long term cost savings through value engineering.
9. Upper Bristol Road, Bath Before After What was possible?
11. Rural Road Diets “Cycle Road” - No reduction in capacity but huge impact on pedestrian/cyclist safety.
12. Key Road Diet Principles
13. Road User Hierarchy Prioritise the most vulnerable.
14. Cycle Roads • Central lane + 2 x 1.5m unidirectional advisory cycle lanes. • Cycle lane can also be used by pedestrians. • Do not implement on busy roads (PCU < 1000). • Buses are 2.6m wide. A bus route needs a 3m wide central lane • Cars are 2m wide. 2m wide central lane possible. • Be brave. It’s only paint.
16. Parking • Parking to the English is like guns to Americans. Do not touch. • The Door Zone is a killer. Avoid designing in danger. • Parking can help make walking and cycling safer. • Be brave. It’s only paint.
17. DOOR ZONE DANGER
18. Calming effects • Narrow lanes naturally reduce speeding. • Central lines encourage speeding. • Use mobile street furniture to completely change a space. • Road diets are not just about better transport options. • Be brave. It’s only paint.
20. Think in decades • To make cycling comfortable for all, we need good, high quality, protected, cycleways - inclusive for all ages and abilities • Direct, on main roads • Space taken from carriageway • Footway not compromised • Small steps! Advisory Lane => Mandatory Lane => Protected Cycle Lane! • Road diets can deliver Advisory and Mandatory cycle lanes for free. • Mandatory cycle lanes no longer require Traffic Regulation Orders. • Other funding pots can deliver segregation. • Use parking to protect cycleways and make them safe for kids. • Be brave. It’s only paint.
23. It’s about building transport networks. You network is only as good as its weakest link. Think in decades. Be brave. It’s only paint.
24. What can you do? • Highways Officers will only be as brave as they are allowed to be. • Support them, encourage them, praise them. • Understand they will make mistakes and fall short of expectations. • Road diets require only paint and maybe movable road furniture. • Be brave. It’s only paint.