Simple Truths #4 & #5
Simple Truth #4: Businesses Need
- TO BE VISIBLE & NOTICED
- EASY SAFE CUSTOMER ACCESS
Six-Lanes posted 45mph is a high speed corridor
intended to speed vehicles past businesses
and on through the corridor quickly…
At what benefit to your business visibility & access when
the faster the passing customer:
- The less noticeable/visible are roadside businesses.
- The more difficulty braking to safely turn into businesses.
- Added lanes add accidents & customer anxiety.
- Makes a business more dependent on one direction of traffic.
o Drivers on the outside lane of 7 lanes (includes center turn lane) are far enough from a business opposite to cause fear of collision when crossing multiple lanes to make a left turn across another three lanes into an opposite side business.
o Result: six lanes plus turn lane relegate your business potential customers to be drawn more exclusively from only one direction of traffic, whereas, with today’s four-laned ByPass, customers have more comfort and security and businesses draw from both directions of traffic.
o Aware of the higher risks in crossing so many lanes, drivers tend to avoid a route with more risk – especially in an area with the highest concentration of senior citizens in the Sarasota region. A high speed corridor with more lanes means more seniors will be less likely to use the route in daylight hours and not drive the route after dark.
Why construct at US41/Venice Ave. (nine-lanes wide) one of the largest, if not the largest, signalized intersection in Sarasota County with the higher accident risk from added lanes?
With that much risk to sales from widening a corridor, is there an alternative that can increase sales?
Yes, as successful elsewhere in the USA with four lane corridors like the Bypass with similar current and
projected volume of vehicles. Empirical evidence mounts (see case studies below) that the ByPass can
remain four lanes and handle anticipated vehicle volume with greater congestion relief and be more
business friendly by replacing the traffic signals with modern roundabouts.
Where modern roundabouts stimulated business without adding lanes...
CASE STUDIES
Golden Colorado retail strip experienced 60% increase in sales after opening series of four modern roundabouts.
Business owners agree that slower speeds and safer travel enhanced business along the corridor. http://www.slideshare.net/thecityalliance/fhwa-roundabout-presentation (see slide #26)
Glens Falls NY Business people tell of Roundabout impact on their businesses.
Glens Falls NY Roundabout impact on Businesses Roundabout impact on businesses adjacent to modern roundabout in Glenn Falls, New York.. They like it.!!! http://tinyurl.com/3pxvr8g
Carmel, IN, chooses Roundabouts instead of DOT plan to add lanes…
..provides residents and visitors with easier access to merchants, parks, and recreational areas, encouraging economic growth in the community December 20, 2010
“Businesses don’t just want to be where people are, they want to be where customers can easily and safely access their location. Areas famous for traffic jams discourage customers over time and can simply be bad for business. Roundabouts provide an excellent way to move traffic more smoothly and prevent gridlock in retail areas and office centers. Safe and environmentally-friendly roundabouts have helped facilitate our community’s business growth” – Mo Merhoff, President Carmel Chamber of Commerce. Ph 317.846.1049 (mm@carmelchamber.com)
and check out these in retail settings:
Federal Highway Administration - Evaluating Performance of Corridors with Roundabouts
Roundabouts are increasingly recognized as an intersection control strategy that can fulfill multiple performance goals related to traffic operation and safety, and meet societal goals related to sustainability, livability, complete streets, context sensitive design, economic development, and others. Some transportation agencies have recently constructed or approved the use of a series of roundabouts on an arterial rather than the traditional solution of coordinated signalized intersections.
AND see the FHWA modern roundabout video, click
Simple Truth #5: Timed Lights Fail When Needed Most.
The US41ByPass, widened to six lanes, envisions coordinated Green lights as key to how six lanes will relieve congestion -- where traffic theoretically flows through without stopping.
That can work at 2 a.m., but will fail when needed most -- during peak congestion. Fruitville Road in Sarasota is a good example.
Off-peak Fruitville flows well with two-way timed lights in series, creating a “Green light band.” However …. during morning and evening peak volumes, this timed coordination breaks down as side street drivers enter Fruitville out of sync with the through speed used to time the lights. These new drivers coming onto Fruitville add to the queue at each REDlight downstream waiting for the light to turn Green. The through platoon then arrives for the expected Green …. only to find the newly entered drivers are just beginning to move …so now the large platoon is impeded by that idling small platoon that is now starting to accelerate away with the new Green. This reality compounds until platoons start arriving behind longer queues at each STOPlight in the Fruitville series, through drivers end up waiting for a second light cycle to get through.Thus, timed lights do NOT relieve Fruitville congestion when needed most… though the Green band works at 2 a.m. when traffic is very light. Timed lights are one of the many abilities of the MPO’s Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) which, otherwise, will aid intersection management during evacuations and other emergencies.What does this have to do with widening the Venice ByPass from four-lanes to six? Expecting timed Green lights to maintain peak hour traffic flow six lanes wide cannot overcome Sir Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion – a body at rest tends to stay at rest. Inertia.
Better, smoother, quicker travel time through the US41 Venice ByPass will happen at less cost with a series of modern roundabouts, replacing STOPlights (which electricity, maintenance, and “timing” make costly to operate).
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With a reliable traffic demand forecasts and valid comparison of before and after mobility impact of four lanes vs six lanes - signals or modern roundabouts . . .
1) The MPO cost/benefit mission of safer smoother traffic flow soonest is best met, 2) Venice residents’ deserved congestion relief is best served,3) The multimodal principles of this MPO’s adopted 2035 Long Range Transportation Plan best honored.Key: An MPO selection of a proved better cost/benefit could achieve the relief sought by Venice while freeing up several million dollars for waiting US 41 mobility needs from Palmetto to the Charlotte County line.
#4 Width Impacts Business
#5 Timed Lights Fail When Needed Most
Clearwater Roundabout, 58,000 vehicles a day in season
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