Northwest Arkansas Times, AR
08-28-07
Limited curb cuts allow for better-functioning arterials
BY MARSHA L. MELNICHAK Northwest Arkansas Times
When drivers have to slow down or wait to enter a mall, retail business or
restaurant, or when they have to wait for a break in traffic before they can turn
onto the roadway from their home or a business, they are dealing with access
management.
“ It’s like comparing College Avenue to Steele Boulevard, ” said Leif Olson, longrange planner for the city of Fayetteville. “ Steele Boulevard has a high level of
access management. You feel safe driving around Steele Boulevard. It’s a
threelane street with a center leftturn lane, continuous, but it’s still a much safer
feel. You don’t have people darting across in front of you, behind you, across
you. ”
Fayetteville planning staff recently proposed a street design ordinance with
access management standards for eventual consideration by the Fayetteville City
Council. It’s slated to be considered first by the Street Committee, but a date is
not set.
“ When access is poorly managed, traffic turning off or onto the roadway causes
traffic on the roadway to slow or stop, resulting in more opportunities for crashes
and traffic congestion, ” explained Marcia Brink, publications manager of the
Center for Transportation Research and Education, Iowa State University.
“ Good access management generally does at least a couple of things: (1 )
reduces the number of access points or driveways between a road and the
adjacent property and (2 ) provides turning vehicles with opportunity (ies ) to slow
and / or stop in advance of the turn without affecting non-turning traffic on the
main roadway, ” she wrote in an e-mail to the Northwest Arkansas Times.
The proposal to be considered by the council tries to limit uncontrolled traffic
conflict at turning points by limiting the number of curb cuts on a piece of property
based on length of street frontage and the classification of the street.
“ It really becomes a safety issue, ” Olson said.
Tim Conklin, planning and development management director for the city,
explained that the access management standards are part of the street
management agenda for the city plus recent discussions about access onto
arterial streets from developments.
“ The intent has always been safe access, to manage the access on major
streets, ” he said.
The city has had access management standards since 1994 with the design
overlay district, Conklin said.
Referring to a chapter of the city’s 2003 Traffic and Transportation study, Conklin
said, “ It’s about preserving roadway safety, safety is the reason you develop the
standards; improved traffic mobility, so moving traffic throughout the system;
protect the integrity of local neighborhoods, so people use access management
for that; create better conditions for transportation modes; and then, finally,
protect the taxpayers’ investment in the major street system. ”
He said that all development in CMN Business Park and other developments
along Interstate 540 have been planned with those access management
standards.
Olson explained the standards, if approved, will link to the Master Street Plan.
For example, interstate access, which is limited to interchanges, has the highest
level of access management, while neighborhoods with a driveway at every lot
have the lowest. They also have the lowest speeds.
Arterial roads will have a “ very high level” of access management, Olson said.
“ Because of the volume of traffic that flows down that arterial, you don’t want
unlimited curb cuts because then you’re just creating more conflict, ” he said. “
The more curb cuts, the more areas for conflict with the traffic. You have more
turning movements, you have higher rates of accidents, and because it’s at a
higher speed, being an arterial, you want to control that environment for safety. ”
Conklin said managing access is about the relationship between turning
movements and crash rates.
“ I think everybody’s aware of certain intersections where you have multiple
points of access serving different uses from gas stations to restaurants to strip
centers, and you’ve got a major highway with traffic moving at certain speeds
through the intersection, ” he said. “ It can be challenging, sometimes, to get
even in and out of those developments.
“ Setting standards, I think, creates a more predictable environment.
The two men stressed that the standards would not deny access. It’s about
coordinating and managing access for public safety, health and welfare, they
said.
“ It’s not about prohibiting access to someone’s property; it’s about where access
should occur onto that property, ” Conklin said. “ The challenge always is the
cumulative impact of how much access you provide on an arterial street. ”
“ Taxpayers invest in a street system to create an arterial to move traffic through
the city, and 20 years later there’s a curb cut every 50 feet, ” Olson added. “ It’s
the College Avenue syndrome. One doesn’t really make a difference, but when
you do one here and one there and one here, 15 or 20 years later, it’s not an
arterial anymore. ”