01091701

Component

County State Aid Highway (CSAH) 42 is a major east-west arterial serving the southern suburbs of the Twin Cities metropolitan area in Minnesota. This corridor represents an excellent case study in both how not to and how to manage access along a major suburban arterial. The existing highway corridor configuration was developed over a number of decades and illustrates a number of poor access management practices. These include: (1) Lack of coordination among local government jurisdictions (including two counties and two cities) along the corridor both in terms of traffic engineering and land use planning; (2) Over-reliance on traffic signalization as a solution to traffic operations and safety issues along an arterial corridor. Traffic signals were added incrementally to address spot operational and safety issues. Eventually, the entire system functioned poorly due to the resultant close signal spacing; (3) Lack of planning for alternative access to land development. A comprehensive, interconnected system of backage or frontage roads was never developed for this roadway. In fact, land development was allowed to occur at locations that would have been ideal for the placement of backage roads; An access management project currently underway along the corridor illustrates a number of pro-active access management practices being practiced by the local governments involved in the project. These are: (1) Use of microscopic traffic simulation as a tool for analyzing alternatives and for the education of project stakeholders about the causes of congestion along the corridor; (2) Careful attention to commercial business concerns along the corridor. The local governments commissioned a detailed study of the types of businesses along the corridor and conducted interviews and group meetings to understand the concerns of businesses. This study resulted in a phased development of the project in which the alternative backage road system is being completed in advance of any mainline improvements and modifications; (3) Use of innovative and difficult to promote access management treatments, including using 3/4 median openings to control left-turning and crossing traffic and traffic signal removal.

01091711

English

16p

2007

3rd Urban Street Symposium: Uptown, Downtown, or Small Town: Designing Urban Streets That Work

CD-ROM

Figures; Maps; Photos; References (3)

Access control (Transportation); Alternatives analysis; Arterial highways; Businesses; Highway corridors; Highway operations; Highway safety; Highway traffic control; Innovation; Intergovernmental relations; Local government; Microscopic traffic flow; Real estate development; Suburbs; Traffic signals; Traffic simulation; Turning traffic

Traffic signal removal

Minnesota

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

TRIS, TRB

Mar 27 2008 4:13PM

• A Generalized Model for Analyzing Operational Conditions at Intersections in Urban Areas
• A History of Pedestrian Signal Walking Speed Assumptions
• A Model of Potential Capacity of Right Turn Movement at Signalized Intersections Under Mixed Traffic Conditions
• Analysis of Multifunctional Traffic Environments
• Analyzing Raised Crosswalks Dimensions Influence on Speed Reduction in Urban Streets
• Applying Context Sensitive Techniques to Improve Design and Gain Stakeholder Support
• Benefits and Risks of Urban Roadside Landscape: Finding a Livable, Balanced Response
• Cross Section Width for Parallel Parking
• Design and Traffic Organization for Ultra-Wide Urban Street in China
• Designing Inside the Box - Strategies to Successfully Marry Smart Growth and Context-Sensitive Transportation Initiatives
• Designing Streets for Enhanced Transit Service: The Jerusalem Experience
• Driveway Design Practices, Issues, and Needs
• Estimating Running Time on Urban Street Segments
• Four-Lane to Three-Lane Conversions: An Update and a Case Study
• Geometric Design of Interchange in Urban City
• Improving Pedestrian Safety at Unsignalized Intersections
• Integrating Context Sensitive Solutions into University Transportation Education
• Involving the Public in Redesigning Urban Street Layouts in the UK
• Iowa's Experience with 2-Lane to 3-Lane Conversions
• Iowa's Experience with 4-Lane to 3-Lane Conversions
• Pedestrian Crossings Priority for Pedestrian Safety
• Recent Superstreet Implementation and Research
• Responding to the Challenges of Bicycle Crossings at Offset Intersections
• Retrofitting Urban Arterials into Complete Streets
• Review of Guidelines for Establishing School Speed Zones
• Safety Effect of the Skew Angle in Right Turn Maneuvers
• Separation Between Pedestrians and Bicyclists
• Shared-Use Streets – An Application of “Shared Space” to an American Small Town
• Should Direct Left-turns from Driveways be Replaced by Right-turns Followed by U-turns? The Safety and Operational Comparison in Florida
• Speed: How Can We Get What We Want?
• St. Louis Great Streets Initiative
• Study on the Relationship of Intersection Design and Safety of Urban Unsignalized Intersection in China
• Study on the Safety Relationship between Left-turn Gap Acceptance and Waiting Time
• Sustainable Urban Street Design and Assessment
• Synthesis of the Median U-Turn Intersection Treatment, Safety, and Operational Benefits
• Traffic Calming in Slovenia
• Urban Street Reconstruction with Cultural Consideration-Research and Case Studies
• Yielding Behaviour and Interaction at Bicycle Crossings