#TIL : Yes, there is something called The Road Diet

By Jagriti Arora

Road diet is a strategy that includes restriping a stretch of the road to remove at least one lane and to turn that pavement over for other functions.

The most common way of introducing this is changing a four-lane road, with two lanes in each direction, into a three-lane road, with one lane in each direction and a shared center turn lane. The 10 to 12 feet of shared space from the lost vehicle lane can either be used for a bike lane in each direction or for parking.

Road diets also take the form of a six-lane undivided cross section converted to a five-lane cross section; it consists of two through lanes in each direction and a central lane. Conversion to a five-lane configuration is less common and, consequently, the benefits of the conversion are not nearly as well documented as those of the three-lane conversion.

The notion finds mention in the book “Walkable City”, by the notable urban planner Jeff Speck. He explains that road diets contribute to road safety by removing the left-hand passing lane, which sometimes let drivers slip into the ‘road racer’ state of mind. In such a state of mind, whichever lane one is in, the other lane looks faster.

Several cities who introduced road diets have reported that simply reducing the number of lanes dedicated to cars reduces speeds and provides fewer opportunities for collisions; it thereby cuts vehicle crashes by 19–52%.( Federal Highway Administration, US)

Today I learnt (TIL) is a weekly series by OMI that brings you interesting nuggets of information that you didn’t know you needed.