Evaluation of Lane Reduction “Road Diet” Measures in China

Abstract

Road diet measures are widely used abroad, but they have not been implemented in China. One of the important reasons is that we usually think that the reduction of the number of lanes will cause traffic congestion. In order to evaluate the impact of lane reduction “road diet”measures, we implemented road diet reform measures in Shoushan Road to Longxing Road section of Xinghai North Street, Xingcheng City. After nearly one year of adaptation, we evaluate the implementation plan from three aspects in this study: safety, operation, and subjective feeling. Then design a questionnaire to investigate the subjective feelings of drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians on road diet measures. The questionnaire data shows that 56% of drivers has been illegally occupying the non-motorized road or central yellow line area, the main reason is that the speed of the vehicle ahead is too slow and there is no illegal capture equipment. More than 70% of bicyclists believe that their number of rides has increased. More than 90% of pedestrians think it is easier to cross the street, and they used to stay in the central yellow line area. Using VISSIM and SSAM to evaluate the traffic operation and safety aspects before and after the road reform, the results show that after the reform, the average speed decreases by about 5km/h, the travel time for left turn on the road segment generally increases, and the number of conflict points decreases by about 33%.

Walkability and importance assessment of pedestrian facilities on central business district in capital city of Indonesia

“…Previous studies have shown that a road diet increases cyclists and reduces motor vehicle speed (Gudz et al, 2016). A study in China also showed that the road diet increases the number of cyclists and makes it easier for pedestrians to cross (Huang et al, 2019). Reducing the number of motorized vehicle lanes, reducing motor vehicle access, and reducing on-street parking will make an area walkable (Knapskog et al, 2019).…”

Economic impacts on local businesses of investments in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure: a review of the evidence

“…We do not review the literature on the effect of active travel facilities on motorist volumes here. But there is evidence that active travel improvements like road diets (Gudz, Fang, & Handy, 2016;Huang, Stewart, & Zegeer, 2002) and complete streets retrofits (Shu, Quiros, Wang, & Zhu, 2014) can increase bicycling or pedestrian volumes while having little to no effect on vehicular traffic flow. In addition, a recent review of the literature on changes in bicycle ridership following installation of a new bicycle facility concluded that "sizeable percentage increases in ridership can be expected along the routes of new Class I, Class II, and Class IV facilities" (Volker et al, 2019a, p. 20;Volker & Handy, 2019).…”