We compose about a lot of high - tech solutions for making roadstead safe : driverless cars , separated cycle lane , public transit , smarter signaling . Each of these are expensive to modernize and difficult to take on . What if there was a simple , cost - effective agency to guarantee safer streets ? There could be : Make all traffic lanes just 10 feet wide .
That ’s the contention made by walkability expert Jeff Speckover at CityLab . He is nominate what seems like a wizardly bullet for route condom : If traffic engineers would simply reduce lane breadth to 10 feet , we ’d have fewer roadway deaths , better dealings menses , and more vibrant city .
In most urban orbit , a 12 - metrical foot lane is the standard for building new street , and it has been for some time . Some urban center — suburban areas , mostly — can go as high as 14 foot . Why so wide ? The rationality was a blemished belief engender around the development of the interstate main road organisation that wider lane were safer for number one wood .
When designing our state highway lane , technologist had to plan them for much gamey fastness than the speed limit that was posted — because they recognise people would accelerate . Therefore , freeways were design with much wide lane than necessary . But that does n’t translate to metropolis driving , say Speck :
regrettably , train to wait this sort of demeanour , main road engineer utilise the same logic to the design of metropolis streets , where mass behave in an entirely unlike way of life . On city street , most driver ignore posted speed limits , and or else force back the speed at which they feel dependable . That focal ratio is set by the discriminative stimulus provided by the environs . Are there other cars near me ? Is an carrefour border on ? Can I see around that niche ? Are there trees and buildings near the road ? Are there masses walking or biking nearby ? And : How across-the-board is my lane ?
So broad lane change our behavior , which alters the entire ecosystem of the street , argue Speck . Drivers go quicker , endangering themselves and others . Pedestrians are squeeze to walk farther to cross wider streets , endangering themselves and others . the great unwashed on bikes are forced to ride too close to immobile cars , peril themselves and others . It ’s like a fell circle of risk .
https://gizmodo.com/how-bad-street-design-kills-pedestrians-1582315776
It did n’t always apply to be this way , of track , and that ’s where denser cities provide some great precedent . New York City , for object lesson , has 10 - foot lane now . Drive through even older downtowns and you ’ll plausibly feel perfectly comfortable on eight - foot lanes . Even in an SUV . There ’s just no rationality for traffic lanes to be much big than that .
In this Florida project by Speck ’s firm , reducing lane widths to 10 feet made more room for a protect motorcycle lane ( in orange ) , which in turn make for a safe sidewalk .
Safety is n’t the only benefit for minute lanes . Speck cites an fantabulous field by Paul Moore and Theodore Petritsch , “ The Influence of Lane Widths on base hit and mental ability : A Summary of the Latest Findings , ” which disputes many long - hold safety myths . ( It ’s a skillful read and written in clear , concise language , with illustrations . ) But the study also points out the other , inherent benefits : Narrower lanes can create more room for streetcars , wide sidewalks , additional trees , cafe seats , even well - integrated parking — all that stuff which make a street far more gratifying to be on when you ’re not in a car . Which directly contributes to the health and well - being of local residents .
A road diet in Manhattan removes a lane of vehicular dealings for wheel lane . constringe lanes can accomplish the same goal .
All of this has already been turn out to work out so well that it ’s being implemented on a very small scale on American streets right now : This is essentially what transit planners are doing when they implement road diets , a pop method of take a lane of vehicular traffic to add bicycle and pedestrian facility while mitigating congestion — and doing thing like adding bike lane and improving pedestrian crossingshave been examine to increase electrical capacity .
The Surprising Reason Why Bike Lanes Could Be Good For Cars
But simply narrowing lanes ( or expect they only be 10 feet in the first place ) is a much simpler idea than instituting a comprehensive road diet down the line . route diet often includes additional costs for elements like check extensions or bike lane construction — narrowing a street by restriping really only really requires some rouge , as the exemplar up top shows . And it does it in a way that will likely be imperceptible to driver .
The Department of Transportation is set to releaseseveral novel guidelinesby the end of the yr that will move the country away from a car - centric planning perspective andtowards a cultivation of more shared streets . If they could add this one simple rule to their testimonial , it would produce tremendous impact and very probably preserve lives . [ CityLab ]
Top image : pin down lane to 10 feet in St. Petersburg , Florida . photograph by Michael Frederick , Manager Neighborhood Transportation and & Parking
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