Capacity Reallocation Projects and Their Perceived Effects on Local Economics, Sustainability, Livability

With increasing federal and state policies and funding support mechanisms for non-motorized transportation, an important opportunity exist to further the understanding around design and implementation issues associated with these projects. Many communities are exploring capacity reallocation projects, which generally take the form of reducing an existing multi-lane road (usually four-lanes) to two vehicle-lanes, and adding a center left hand turn lane and dedicated bike and pedestrian paths in both directions. Although capacity reallocation projects are becoming a more widely applied mode shift strategy, there is very little research on the impact of these types of projects on non-safety factors. This research will contribute by expanding the understanding of how residents and businesses judge the economic and livability impacts of road diets and how previously surveyed respondents and their initial project opinions may be modified by personal experience with a reallocation project. The proposed project builds on a prior University of California Transportation Center (UCTC) supported effort that focused on a pre-implementation data collection and analysis for a capacity reallocation project within the City of Davis. The project was referred to as the 5th Street Redesign. The current UCTC support focused on capturing attitudes and perceptions as well as characterizing existing operating conditions as the 5th Street Redesign went from the public participation stage through final design. Here, the project proposes to focus on community perceptions, attitudes and personal usage after implementation, which is scheduled for Sept 2012. As far as it is known, this project will serve, in total, as the first rigorous pre- and post-evaluation of capacity reallocation project.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $47000
• Contract Numbers:

  7868

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  University Transportation Centers Program
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Performing Organizations:

  University of California, Davis

  Institute of Transportation Studies
  Davis, CA  United States  95616
• Principal Investigators:

  Niemeier, Debbie

• Start Date: 20120801
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• Source Data: RiP Project 33497

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bikeways; Data collection; Design; Highway capacity; Nonmotorized transportation; Public participation; Walkways
• Geographic Terms: Davis (California)
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01471036
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University of California Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: 7868
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Jan 31 2013 1:01AM