Road Diets

Rosedale Green Corridor Project is an initiative currently underway by Rosedale Development Association in conjunction with the Unified Government Planning Department. They envision a 3.9 mile stretch down Southwest Boulevard being converted into a vibrant environment, one where businesses and residents can thrive with easy accessibility through a multi-modal transportation plan, including bicycle and pedestrian transportation. The plan also reflects off street trails, preservation of green open spaces and improved lighting to create a safe atmosphere along the corridor. A residential section will also discuss creating healthy homes and healthy lifestyles for residents and their families.

Part of problem down Southwest Boulevard is the high volume of traffic, no bike lane and a sense that it's really all about the cars, not really the pedestrian. As you can see from the pictures below there are two lanes of traffic either side of the middle line, there are no bike lanes and the speed limit is 30mph.

Here's a picture of the road outside Rosedale Park entrance. You can see there aren't even sidewalks for the kids to get from one side of the park to the other!

Road Dieting is something that just by reworking the road markings you can switch four lanes of traffic (two either way) down to one either way, a turn lane in the middle and bike lanes either side. Of course Mission Road would need sidewalks putting in which I'm told might cost in excess of $100,000!

Here's a good example of road dieting from document by Michael Ronkin entitled Road Diets: Designing Streets for Pedestrians and Bicyclists

Some further brainstorming with Chris and Tyler produced an idea for rapid prototyping: how can graphics slow people down?

I'd also like to do some of the following:
1. visit businesses on Southwest Blvd
2. take pictures of the road in different places, including Mission Road by the park
3. find out more about the green corridor
4. is there a federal system that they have for making road markings?
5. look at other places in the US where they have no distinction between the sidewalk and the road (i.e. creating a level playing field for pedestrian and motorist)
6. how are the city planners involved already?