Alexander Road could benefit from a "road diet."
The WWBPA ?believes that Alexander Road and Canal Pointe Boulevard would benefit from road diets. A Seattle study of a road diet on one of its streets notes the following:
- Speed has declined.
- Collisions have declined.
- Pedestrian Crossings are safer.
- Bicycle volume has increased
- Peak hour capacity has been maintained.
Read previous news items about Canal Pointe Boulevard.
It’s not immediately apparent, but road diets are reported to work because they use the existing infrastructure more efficiently.
In concrete terms, this means motorists get down Canal Pointe Blvd in the same or less time, even while traveling at a slower speed.
What’s the secret? There is less space between cars at the slower speed, so more cars use the same roadway to get there, plus there’s no slowing/swerving for left turning traffic since a separate lane is provided.
And the best part? Bicyclists, pedestrians and transit users (Canal Pointe Blvd is on a bus route) are encouraged to use the roadway – more efficiency again, since they take up less roadway space for their use, since most cars have only 1 person in them. This makes our town more livable and desirable, raising our property values – a win for everyone.
And if you have to exercise your inner Indy Car driver, Rt 1 is only a block from Canal Pointe Blvd, and goes pretty much the same places.
in fact, in the right lane, it almost felt as though I damaged my vehicle when I hit one of these dips….even while traveling close to 35 mph. It’s a very serious problem and I am not sure why it has not been taken care of.
Canal Pointe’s right lane really needs to be repaved. It’s full of dips and potholes, and drivers avoiding it get very aggressive in the left lane. Re-do the whole road and perhaps add some more turn sections, and increase the speed limit to 45. The area also has a huge tailgating problem that needs to be dealt with ue to the above. Same with Alexander; poor road quality, too many potholes, too many aggressive tailgaters.
[…] some of West Windsor’s roads on diets, principally Canal Pointe Boulevard and Alexander Road (see our post from May 2010). ?A “road diet” means reducing travel lanes, for example, from four to two with a […]