ENGR. JOMAR S.

RAMOS
The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)' s Recommended Practice on Planning
Urban Roadway Systems identifies some of the key characteristics of planning an
urban roadway network. [ITE, 2011] It is important to note that except for systems in
newly developing areas or where new highway systems are being superimposed on
existing development, much of the activity in planning urban roadway systems
involves modifying existing facilities, or on occasions adding a major new facility. The
best practices include:

• Urban roadway systems should consist of a multimodal network of

streets and highways that serves automobiles, trucks, transit,
bicyclists, and pedestrians.

Define the roadway network to handle traffic volumes safely and efficiently—
providing convenient routes around the area for through traffic and routes
within the area for traffic moving between major land uses.
Define vehicular mobility appropriately in dense urban areas where multiple modes of
transportation are served, to ensure that the plan will not result in speeds that
threaten the safety of pedestrians or have negative environmental and aesthetic
impacts from noise.

Develop the roadway system in such a manner that there are sufficient
interconnections and a degree of redundancy, meaning that no single roadway has an
overwhelming volume of traffic and most roadways can maintain a smaller scale and
therefore provide a multimodal environment for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit
users. For example, transportation planners and urban planners agree that a functional
grid, a network with a high degree of interconnectivity, is superior to urban/ suburban
networks where residential streets are discontinuous.

Provide reasonably direct access for emergency and service vehicles.

Arrange parking facilities, vehicular and pedestrian circulation routes, bicycle routes,
and buildings to minimize conflicts between nonmotorized and vehicular movements.

Provide direct routes for truck movements between freight generators and major
roadway facilities.

Provide a system of bicycle facilities and routes. Consider the most likely bicycle users,
which may include commuters, students, or recreational bicyclists.

Integrate transit service efficiently within the roadway network; ensure easy access for
pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists accessing bus stops, terminals, or train stations.

Consider direct connections to activity centers by transit and high-occupancy vehicles

(HOV) during the planning stage of freeways to ensure good access by these modes.
• Urban roadway systems should be planned such that individual roads and
streets serve different functions within the network (functional classification),
serving all modes of passenger and freight/ goods movement.

Balance the roadway system plan to meet the need for all modes of transportation,
including private vehicles, commercial vehicles, transit, bicycles, and pedestrians.
While each facility will not need to serve every mode, the system as a whole should
provide a good level of service for each mode. Some individual roadways may have
priority for specific modes.

Consider the land-use context and urban form in determining the relative
importance of each mode on various streets in the network. Areas that are intended
to be walkable and transit-oriented should have street networks that will support
these modes.
• Urban roadway systems should have a high degree of connectivity to help
provide multiple routing options for all user groups.

Move toward a roadway system that includes redundancy in the roadway network
to offer more than one direct route between points in the area.

Identify layered and of necessity, overlapping, networks for pedestrians, bicyclists,

transit, autos, and trucks so that each network has an appropriate level of
connectivity and redundancy.

Move toward networks with more frequently spaced roadways, as opposed to

sparse networks of wide arterials.

Consider emergency vehicle access as part of the network planning. Emergency

vehicles will often operate more effectively within a dense network, where
alternative routes are available in the case of severe accidents or emergency
roadway closures.
Provide direct access to the regional transportation system for industrial sites.

Avoid having a concentration of vehicular traffic at bottleneck intersections and rely on

connectivity improvements to reduce congestion.

Provide high levels of roadway connectivity to afford more options for local trips and
less dependence on arterials for short trips.

Provide multiple roadway connections throughout neighborhoods to provide

alternative routing, improve emergency response times, reduce travel costs for school
buses and snowplows/ street sweepers, and reduce the demand on the arterial system.
Where vehicle connections are hindered by a natural feature or other obstacle,
consider at least a pedestrian/ bicycle link.
• Urban roadway systems should have a network density appropriate to the
land-use patterns and urban form that are served.

Size the roadway network to complement the design and character of the
surrounding community.

Integrate the planned roadway system with the area's land-use plan so that it serves
as a total and integrated multimodal system rather than as a series of loosely related
roadway improvements.

Provide high-density, walkable, mixed-use development along major transit

corridors to maximize the opportunity for transit.

Provide a roadway network conducive to pedestrians by planning small block sizes,

high roadway connectivity (especially for local streets), and complete sidewalk
systems. Pedestrian crossings are safer in a denser network of two- to four-lane
roadways as opposed to a sparser network of six-lane roadways.
• Urban roadway systems should recognize the role of roadways as public
spaces and in shaping urban environments.

Recognize the multiple roles of major urban roadways in access, place making, and
economic development.

Include an assessment of the context zones within the planning area. Plan the
roadway system to be compatible with the appropriate context zones such a modal
balance, connectivity, and scale of roadways.

Plan the transportation facilities to be aesthetically attractive and, to the extent

possible, to blend in with or highlight the surroundings and topographic features
through which they pass.
• Urban roadway systems should be planned with consideration of
environmental, social, economic, and financial issues.

Plan the roadway system to be sufficiently flexible so that it can be adapted over
time to meet future challenges in travel patterns not foreseen at the time of the
plan's formulation. Examples include preservation of corridor rights of way to
facilitate network expansion as growth occurs or designation of flexible roadway
cross sections to accommodate dedicated transit lanes or wider sidewalks.

Plan for a roadway network that minimizes the length of vehicle trips to reduce
vehicle miles traveled (VMT).

Plan the roadway system to encourage development that reduces average trip
lengths and is conducive to travel by transit, bicycle, or foot.
• Urban roadway systems should be planned with consideration of
environmental, social, economic, and financial issues.

Plan the roadway system to be sufficiently flexible so that it can be adapted over
time to meet future challenges in travel patterns not foreseen at the time of the
plan's formulation. Examples include preservation of corridor rights of way to
facilitate network expansion as growth occurs or designation of flexible roadway
cross sections to accommodate dedicated transit lanes or wider sidewalks.

Plan for a roadway network that minimizes the length of vehicle trips to reduce
vehicle miles traveled (VMT).

Plan the roadway system to encourage development that reduces average trip
lengths and is conducive to travel by transit, bicycle, or foot.
Bring origins and destinations closer together through higher densities and
appropriately mixed land use.

Develop a financing plan over the long term to ensure implementation of the urban
roadway system.

Plan the roadway system to consider the safety of all users and seek to minimize
conflicts.

Plan the roadway system to be within the reasonable financial capabilities of the
community.

Consider incompatibilities in providing major goods movement mobility with other

uses. For example, major truck routes should not cross major pedestrian corridors.
TRAFFIC CALMING

• A frequent mindset of traditional highway planners and engineers was

that wider and straighter streets promoted safety, and that a minimum
of two travel lanes, in addition to two parking lanes, was a reasonable
minimum cross section to accommodate traffic in an unimpeded way.
The unintended consequences of this approach, particularly on local
residential streets, included various combinations of undesirable “cut-
through” traffic and higher speeds that threatened vehicular and
pedestrian safety. [Lockwood, 1997; Ewing, 1999]

• Traffic calming is a form of context-sensitive solutions. It is now widely

accepted as a way of retrofitting “overdesigned” streets whose vehicular
function is primarily to serve local access. Besides slowing vehicle
speeds, traffic calming also serves to modify driver behavior.
TRAFFIC CALMING
Intersections and Corridors
• Marked crosswalks
• In-road “State Law Stop for Pedestrians” signs
• Pedestrian refuge islands
• Signals and beacons
• Accessible pedestrian signals
• Pedestrian countdown timers
• Leading pedestrian intervals
• Lagging left turns
• Road diets
• Speed feedback signs Roundabouts

Neighborhood Streets
• Chicanes
• Speed bumps
• Narrow street lanes
• Bumpouts
• Neighborhood traffic roundabouts
TRAFFIC CALMING

Road diets reallocate the cross-sectional space (travel lanes and shoulders) by restriping the
road to provide more space to bicyclists and pedestrians by reducing the amount of road
space for motor vehicles. To some, this is a controversial decision because it often entails
removing through travel lanes in order to add space for walking and cycling, and removing left
turns from through lanes (quite often with a two-way left turn lane); to others it provides a
better context for the road itself and the function it is supposed to serve in the community. The
benefits of road diets include:
• Narrowing lanes and widening sidewalks to
provide safer walking space for pedestrians.

• Removing through lanes and adding bicycle

lanes and turning lanes to provide safer and
more convenient riding space to bicyclists and
left turns.

• Narrowing street lanes to discourage

speeding.
COMPLETE STREETS

Complete Streets are designed and operated to provide the safest achievable
access for all users, including motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit
riders. [ITE, 2010; Los Angeles County Metro, 2014] The concept of Complete
Streets to some extent evolved from the context-sensitive solutions (CSS)
approach to road planning and design, as well as experience in some
communities that had adopted a more flexible approach to road design in the
early 2000s.

“Growing urban populations will demand that their streets serve not only as
corridors for the conveyance of people, goods, and services, but as front yards,
parks, playgrounds, and public spaces. Streets must accommodate an ever-
expanding set of needs. They must be safe, sustainable, resilient, multimodal, and
economically beneficial, all while accommodating traffic.”
COMPLETE STREETS
• Transit corridor retrofits should be coordinated with land-use changes to maximize a
corridor's potential for economic growth and transformation.

• A pedestrian-scale environment should be provided.

• A raised cycle track on either side of the corridor promotes bicycle and transit use.

• If local transit service is obstructed by double parking and local traffic congestion, a
BRT, streetcar, or light rail transit service should be considered if transit ridership
supports it.

• Consider the trade-offs between shortening a traffic signal cycle length and providing
sufficient time for pedestrians to cross the road.

• Consider off-board fare collection to improve transit speed.

• Design transit stops to reinforce the desired operation of the transit service.
SYSTEM PERFORMANCE AND CAPACITY MEASURES
A. Traditional Measures
Of all the modes of transportation, roads and highways have been studied the most, and thus have
the most well-developed concepts and relationships that define system and facility performance.
This body of knowledge has been the basis for many of the manuals and technical guides directing
road planning today (see [AASHTO, 2010, 2011, 2014] and [TRB, 2010, 2013, 2015]).

• Average Daily Traffic— This is the most basic measure of traffic demand for a highway, and is
estimated as the total volume during a given time period divided by the number of days in the
time period. Although useful as an indicator of roadway use, ADT does not provide any indication
of variation in demand by hour, day, week, or season, and is not an indicator of congestion.

• Peak-Hour Traffic— In order to reflect better the operating conditions of a road or intersection
during a day, planners collect information on peak hours and peak periods. Peak-hour counts
provide input into performance assessments (when compared to capacity), and when further
disaggregated into smaller time units, for example, 10- or 15-minute periods, are important
inputs into traffic control strategies. Most highway agencies use the 30th highest hourly volume
of the year as the design control for a road.
SYSTEM PERFORMANCE AND CAPACITY MEASURES

• Directional Distribution— The distribution of traffic by direction is important for road design
(e.g., the number of lanes needed) and is used in transportation planning as input into modeled
trip distributions and network assignments. For example, this information is a critical part of
traffic impact studies.

• Vehicle Classification— The vehicle fleet using the road system on a daily basis is quite diverse,
especially for goods movement. Two general classes are used to group vehicles by operating
characteristics: passenger cars (including automobiles, vans, pick-up trucks, and sport utility
vehicles) and trucks (including single-unit and combination trucks, and recreational vehicles).
The type of vehicle using a road or entering an intersection will have an effect on performance
(for example, the more trucks, the more congestion).

• Speed— Speed is an important system characteristic to those who use the system. For
transportation designers, it is a critical input into geometric design characteristics for roads and
intersections. In recent years, the use of design speeds to justify design standards has been
critiqued as resulting in unnecessarily wide and fast facilities. Two design concepts that have
become of interest to planners and discussed earlier, traffic calming and road diets, are mostly
intended to reduce the speed of vehicles on the road.
SYSTEM PERFORMANCE AND CAPACITY MEASURES

• Vehicle (Person) Miles Traveled— The measure of network use is usually defined
as either person or vehicle miles traveled (one person or vehicle traveling one mile).
These measures result from travel demand models that predict the number of
vehicles or persons using a road network, the trip lengths, and mode choice. VMT is
an important variable for estimating motor vehicle-related pollutant emissions as
well. Volume/

• Capacity— This is a traditional measure that compares current or predicted

volumes to the capacity of a facility to handle traffic. The closer this ratio gets to 1.0
(and in many modeling efforts, the ratio is much greater than 1.0), the more
congested the road segment.
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS

Service Measures by System

Element
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS

Relationship among Traffic

Flow, Density, Speed, and
Impacts of Rain
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS

Level of Service and Traffic

Flow and Speed, Freeways