LA's Road Diets

In mid-September, the Los Angeles Times produce an interesting article called "L.A's road diet leaves some hungry for workable solutions" which discusses the city's attempt at reducing vehicular lanes on a few thoroughfares for the addition of more bus-only and bikes lanes, an initiative spelled on in their Mobility Plan 2035. The process of removing vehicle lanes, better known as road diets, for the addition of bus-only and bike lanes has created quite a stir in Los Angeles for both backers and opposers of road diets. 

Cyclists and other supporters of road diets find this notion to be superb as it essentially lures folks to get out of their vehicles because of increase congestion and engage in more active or alternative transportation modes. By adding more vulnerable user friendly spaces, one would assume that safety is likely to improve. 

By reducing the number of vehicular lanes in a city that was largely designed to accommodate the automobile can result in several unintended consequences; consequences that in this case were not well thought out by LA transportation officials. Thoroughfares that have been "slimmed" are experiencing greater congestion, which directly increases the amount of pollution emitted from idling vehicles, emergency vehicle delays and greater accident risks. The biggest problem as alluded to by opposers in the article are motorists utilizing residential streets to avoid road diet back ups resulting in an increased number of pedestrian-vehicle collision from motorist driving at high speeds through these areas. 

As road diets are seemingly becoming more popular, it would be interesting to know the results of such reductions and the consequences that other cities have experienced when reducing vehicle lanes, especially in cities that are designed primarily around the automobile. What benefits and consequences would we see if roads were slimmed in Tucson, rather than widened? Would it even be possible to put our roads in Tucson on diets, given the lack of an adequate public transit system here and already intense congestion?

Can roads be retrofitted, especially in urban cores, after years of servicing hundreds of cars on a daily basis? How can planners or engineers redesign roads that would better account for the unintended consequences that might be a result of the changes?

Roads diets seem like a no-brainer, but do they really work? From the discussion presented in this article, it seems that road diets just remove safety concerns from one place to another and do not actually resolve the problems but rather slaps a band-aid on it hoping that people will change their behaviors. 

Article can be found --> L.A's road diet leaves some hungry for workable solutions