In the early days of motor vehicle traffic, a city’s highway grid was largely made up of two-lane highways. This provided sufficient traffic flow for the relatively small number of vehicles. However, car ownership rates have risen over time, as has traffic congestion. Our highways required to be upgraded to accommodate the increased traffic. The problem of increased traffic congestion was overcome in the 1950s and 1960s by raising the number of lanes on the roads from two to four. There were no engineering committees looking at other solutions or determining if four-lane highways were still the right choice. Four-lane highways are the standard for metropolitan areas around the country.

As a result, our highways, once again, became congested.

Since then, we’ve developed a greater understanding of the obstacles that four-lane highways pose to road safety, such as:

• Rear-end collisions involving high-speed cars or vehicles turning left
• Sideswipe collisions occur as drivers change directions regularly or abruptly.
• Crashes occur as side street traffic tries to cross four lanes.
• Inadequate road space leads to bicycle accidents.
• Accidents occur as pedestrians try to cross four lanes off traffic.
• To combat the risks faced by four-lane highways, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is now proposing that we reduce the number of lanes on our roads.

What Exactly Is a Road Diet?

The expression “road diet” refers to the removal of lanes from a road and the use of the space for other purposes. This road re-channelization usually entails converting a four-lane road into a three-lane road with two through lanes and a middle two-way left-turn lane.  The safety benefits of this simple, low-cost countermeasure may be important.

Here are only a handful of the safety advantages in reducing the number of lanes from four to three:

• Because of the designated left-turn lane, there have been fewer rear-end and left-turn collisions.
• Fewer lanes in which side street traffic and pedestrians could cross
• Traffic has calmed down and is moving at a more steady rate.
• More space for cycling lanes, pedestrian refuge islands, parking, or transit stops

Choosing the Right Road Markings to Make Your Road Diet Successful

To ensure the effectiveness of your road diet, it is critical to choose the appropriate pavement markings to assist drivers in interpreting and reacting to the road. And, in difficult conditions such as at night or in the rain, not just any marks would suffice.

Here are some main features of successful pavement markings:

• Luminance: Drivers must be able to see the lane markers in order to remain in their lanes and navigate the road. The luminance, or visibility, of surface markings is an important element in ensuring that drivers can see the markings consistently.
• Contrast: No matter how vivid a pavement marking is, it would be indistinguishable unless there is ample contrast between the marking and its context (either the road or a contrast stripe next to the pavement marking).
• Retroreflectivity: Retroreflective surfaces are designed to reflect light from a vehicle’s headlights back to the driver, allowing drivers to see street marks at night.
• Dripping Retroreflectivity: Standard pavement markings employ retroreflective optics with a refractive index (RI) of 1.5, and are designed for illumination in ideal conditions. However, when it rains or the roads are muddy, the optics of the pavement markings may become engulfed by water. As a result, light reflected off the optic is scattered out in a much larger, weaker cone. This ensures that less illumination from a car’s lamps would be reflected back to the driver, making it harder to see street markings. To keep the pavement markings clear in damp and snowy road weather, new wet retroreflective pavement marking technology uses ultra-high 2.4 RI optics to reflect a smaller, more concentrated cone of light and mitigate the effect of water.
• Consistency and durability: Real-world road pavement markers are subjected to a wide range of unfavorable conditions and wear and tear. To better ensure that drivers can see the marks over time, the pavement markings must be robust enough to retain their luminance, contrast, and retroreflectivity.
• Automotive Camera Visibility: It is also important to prepare for cars that have advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) such as lane departure alert (LDW) and lane hold assist (LKA).  According to the Highway Loss Data Institute, by 2025, more than 40% of all registered vehicles will be fitted with regular or optional LDW. Cameras in these ADAS-equipped vehicles aid in keeping a vehicle on the road and in its lane. Pavement markers with better visibility and damp retroreflectivity allow these devices to detect lanes more confidently under a variety of situations. As a result, the machine is able to keep the car in its path.

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Suha Shafi

I hold a bachelors degree in business administration and I’m currently working to obtain knowledge & experience on the day to day activities in the business field for a bright future.