09.02 Traffic Study Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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• Vehicle delays. Removing turn lanes causes those turning movements to share a lane with through traffic and will increase delay time. • Encouragement of alternative routes. A more confined intersection, particularly if paired with higher delays, may cause some drivers to rethink their travel paths and adjust to other areas. • Truck movements. Any adjustments need to ensure heavy vehicle traffic is still able to easily maneuver through the intersection. • Safer pedestrian crossings. Removal of turn lanes reduces the crossing distance and the exposure time of pedestrians to vehicle traffic. • Less pavement to manage. Less pavement at an intersection leads to less management issues associated with the roads(while outside of the scope of this study, still an important impact to mention). Considering the volumes at the study intersection (indirectly considering the impact on vehicle delays first), the northbound right turn is the highest movement volume over the course a day at the intersection. However, the northbound through movement volume is low. Additionally, the southbound right turning volume is similarly low throughout the day. Because of these volumes, removing the northbound and southbound right turn lanes is a viable option. For left turn lanes, only the westbound approach has significant enough peak hour left turning volume to warrant an exclusive left turn lane. For symmetry reasons, the eastbound approach should also have a left turn lane to match the geometry of the westbound approach. Therefore, removal of the northbound and southbound left turn lanes is a viable option. The existing turning movement volumes through the Patriot Avenue/Main Street intersection do not meet MUTCD warrants for signal installation. These warrants are standard guidance that suggest when a traffic signal may be justified for an intersection. Since the warrants are not satisfied, a traffic signal may not be needed and other options could be explored. The two options for traffic control at this location other than a traffic signal are all-way stop control and roundabout control. Traffic volumes at this intersection are too high and balanced to consider side-street stop control; 57% of approach traffic is northbound-southbound and 43% is eastbound-westbound. With an all-way stop, as the name implies, every vehicle on every approach stops at the intersection. The benefits of all-way stop over a signal is usually seen during off- peak times when vehicle volumes are lower. For example, a car approaching the intersection at 5:00 a.m. may have to stop at a red signal for many seconds even if there are no other vehicles around. With an all-way stop, this vehicle would only have to make a brief stop and then continue on. Another benefit is that pedestrians do not need to wait for a signal change and can proceed through the intersection. Conversely, all-way stop intersections cannot handle as high of traffic volumes as a signal. Similarly, off-peak operations at a roundabout can be better than those of a signal since vehicles do not need to wait for a change in the signal phase. Pedestrians also do not Traffic Study 12 • . CONSULTING Pequot Lakes