A Comprehensive Study of a Road Diet Implementation in the US and Abroad

Abstract

Road Diets are far from a new technique for designers to apply to roadways. Yet after over 50 years of implementation and countless studies into their effectiveness, it is only relatively recently that the process is gaining widespread recognition and implementation. Each year, more states and countries are examining potential road diets and putting them into place. Still, there remains great skepticism and opposition in many corners. In addition, cities and states may be drawing from many of the same sources in how to go about the process of a road diet and evaluate them, yet their methodology, goals, and even terminology can vary from region to region. This paper reviews both domestic and international road diets to examine the key steps of the process and what knowledge and techniques can be learned from each case study. How to best evaluate a good site for a road diet, how to best design and integrate one into a complete streets design, and how to best evaluate the effectiveness of the process. This evaluation is essential for both determining what tweaks need to be made to optimize efficiency and to sell an often-skeptical public about its effectiveness. By taking the best of what has come before, a better process going forward can be described and demonstrated to a degree.