Tag: center turn lane

Broadway Complete Streets update

Dan Allison2 Comments

This is the eighth post (I think) on the Broadway Complete Streets project. Additional posts on Broadway Complete Streets are available at category ‘Broadway Complete Streets‘.

The long-line striping on Broadway is essentially complete, with the addition of yellow lines for center dividers and the center turn lane. There is still no green paint for bicycle facilities, and the shared transit/bike areas. None of the crosswalks have been installed. This lack of attention to crosswalks is typical of the entire project, motor vehicles first, sidewalks last and walkers crossing last.

Broadway at 3rd St striping
Broadway at 3rd St striping

The short curb-separated bikeway eastbound between 15th Street and 16th Street was closed yesterday, though I had used it a few days earlier. I noticed a bicycle signal on Broadway at 16th Street / Land Park Drive, which may have not been there before or may not have been activated and so I didn’t notice it. In a short while of observing, it did not change to green, so perhaps it is awaiting completion of the curb-separated bikeway.

Broadway at 16th St / Land Park Dr, eastbound, bicycle signal
Broadway at 16th St / Land Park Dr, eastbound, bicycle signal

I continue to have concerns about the RRFBs (rectangular rapid flashing beacon) used for several crosswalks along Broadway. The one in the photo below seemed to be stuck on, for unknown reasons. The rate of driver yielding to people crossing is very low. An observer pointed out that because RRFBs are not common in Sacramento, drivers may not know how to deal with them, and that this would be a perfect time for a city educational effort to bring drivers up to speed (so to speak). The particular location shown below, Broadway at 22nd, has a median island in the center, preventing drivers from passing stopped motor vehicles by using the center turn lane. Other locations do not have this protection, and I observed at least one instance of a driver passing a stopped vehicle by using the center turn lane at Broadway and 18th Street. Reduced general purpose lanes, from two per direction to one per direction, do significantly reduce the multi-lane threat, where one vehicle stops and others do not, but the center turn lane allows drivers to continue to threaten walkers, and to violate the law.

Broadway at 22nd Str, RRFB and walker
Broadway at 22nd Str, RRFB and walker

As recently as the Broadway Fact Sheet in 2019, conversion of 16th Street between Broadway and X Street from one-way to two-way was part of the project. I’ve seen no evidence of work on that part, so it may have been delayed or may have been dropped. Also, work on Broadway between 19th Street and 21st Street has been delayed to another phase due to prolonged negotiation with Union Pacific over whether there will be one or two traffic lanes per direction approaching the railroad tracks between 19th Street and 20th Street.

I’ll post again when green paint has been installed, and the crosswalks completed.

what to do with recovered street width

Dan Allison1 Comment

When 3-lane streets are narrowed to 2-lane streets, street width is recovered for other uses. Traffic lanes are commonly 12 feet wide, though they can be as narrow as 9 feet and as wide as 14 feet or more. Most streets in the downtown/midtown area that I’ve recommended for narrowing are really five lanes wide, three traffic lanes plus two parking lanes. Eight ways in which this recovered right-of-way width can be used:

  1. Widen sidewalks: In some areas, sidewalks are too narrow to carry the number of walkers using them. For example, on 16th Street between P Street and O Street, the sidewalk is much too narrow to handle the foot traffic. There are six businesses on the east side of the street: Pronto by Paesano’s and the associated Uncle Vito’s Pizza, Super Cuts, Nishki Sushi, and Starbucks, plus a storefront that is being refurbished to be Thai Canteen. These generate a lot of customers on foot and on bike, and the narrow sidewalk is frequently crowded.
  2. Add sidewalk buffers: In cases where the sidewalk is immediately adjacent to the street, or a there is a buffer but it is too narrow, width can be devoted to these buffers. Sidewalks with buffers are called detached sidewalks. These may not appropriate in commercial areas because the isolated high-turnover parking from the sidewalk, but are completely appropriate in residential areas and may be in mixed areas.
  3. Add bicycle lanes: Bicycle lanes take up five feet of width if adjacent to the curb, and six feet if adjacent to parking. (AASHTO standards are a minimum of four and five, but these widths are unsafe.) Normally a street will have bike lanes on both side, so two bike lanes will take about the same space as one traffic lane. If we were to otherwise leave the street system as it is, with high speed one-way streets, the protection of bike lanes is critical to making downtown/midtown more bikeable. However, if the recommendations I have made were implemented, streets would move more slowly with lower volumes of traffic, and bike lanes would be less necessary.
  4. Add protected bike lanes: A protected bike lane (cycle track) is a protected bike way, with some sort of physical protection from motor vehicle traffic. The protection can be a painted no-vehicle area, hit posts, curbs, parked cars, or a surface raised to a level between the roadway and the sidewalk. Because the protection takes up space, in many situations only a single protected bike lane can be gained from the removal on one traffic lane.
  5. Add dedicated transit lanes: Bus routes on streets with heavy traffic are often slowed by congestion and by turning vehicles. Both bus and light rail can be sped up by removing some of the conflict with dedicated transit lanes. Long distance dedicated lanes can be used to create bus rapid transit routes, but short segments of lanes can be useful for solving spot congestion problems. If light rail and buses run more freely, transit times are reduced and people will be more likely to choose transit over privately owned vehicles. It is not clear to me at the moment whether any of the 3-lane streets are logical locations for dedicated transit lanes, but I will look at this in the future.
  6. Create wide medians: Medians can be created along the middle of the street, separating the two travel directions. These medians can have plantings, artwork, rainwater basins, sitting areas, and a number of other amenities that may be absent along the street. These parkways or boulevards are probably not appropriate in commercial areas, but would be in residential or mixed areas.
  7. Convert from parallel to diagonal parking: Conversion from parallel parking to diagonal parking (60 degree reverse angled parking) uses up about 8 feet of street width, and roughly doubles the amount of parking. Because parking takes more of the street width, it is even more important to consider curb extensions (bulbouts) to increase pedestrian – driver visibility at intersections and mid-block crossings.
  8. Create center turn lanes: If the street is also being converted from one-way to two-way, the center lane can become a turn lane. I think that this is the least useful of the solutions because it serves a single and not very common need, left turns, with an entire dedicated lane. If the traffic on a street is so heavy that it is difficult to make left turns, a left turn pocket or a block-long center turn lane can be provided every four to eight blocks, but having a continuous lane is just a waste of precious right-of-way.

Certainly not every solution is right for every situation, and each roadway segment should be analyzed to determine the best overall use of the width recovered from 3-lane to 2-lane conversion.