Arterial Lane Drops

The objective of this research project is to enable Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) planners, traffic engineers, and design engineers to make informed decisions about implementing lane drops on arterial streets and freeway on-ramps and better understand the effect that lane drops have on roadway capacity. Data on the number of vehicles using each lane at signalized intersections upstream of lane-drop locations will be collected, analyzed, and compiled into graphs and tables so UDOT can make informed, data-driven decisions about implementing lane drops after intersections and better balance the tradeoffs between project costs and roadway capacity. This is the second phase of a 2020-2021 research project to evaluate the effects that the distance between a signalized intersection and a lane-drop location can have on lane utilization upstream of the intersection. At the end of the previous phase of this project, it was determined that the 25 arterial sample lane-drop locations were not long enough to determine an effective length of a lane drop. This phase would expand the arterial samples to 41, to include lane drops in 16 additional locations. Further, this phase would include up to 25 freeway ramp locations, whereby the first phase did not evaluate freeway ramps. The results will be used to update the existing quick reference chart and table (created during phase 1) that illustrate the expected lane utilization based on the upstream distance to the lane-drop location. Additionally, a new simple-to-use chart and table would be created specifically for freeway ramps based on data from the freeway ramp analysis. The information in both charts and tables would enable UDOT project managers, roadway designers, and traffic engineers to understand the capacity effects of lane drops on arterial streets and freeway ramps, and the tradeoffs related to reducing lane-drop lengths to reduce costs. Having this understanding will enable UDOT to make more effective and informed decisions when considering implementation of lane drops on arterial streets and freeway ramps.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $65000
• Contract Numbers:

  UDOT 24-8098

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Utah Department of Transportation

  4501 South 2700 West
  Project Development
  Salt Lake City, UT  United States  84114-8380
• Managing Organizations:

  Utah Department of Transportation

  4501 South 2700 West
  Project Development
  Salt Lake City, UT  United States  84114-8380
• Project Managers:

  Chamberlin, Robert

• Performing Organizations:

  Avenue Consultants, Incorporated

  6575 South Redwood Road,. Suite 101
  Taylorsville, UT  United States  84123
• Principal Investigators:

  Bassett, David

• Start Date: 20230801
• Expected Completion Date: 20250530
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Arterial highways; Decision making; Highway capacity; Highway design; Interchange ramps; Lane drops; Signalized intersections
• Geographic Terms: Utah
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01898259
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Utah Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: UDOT 24-8098
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Nov 6 2023 2:48PM