New Urbanist Blacksburg
by Max Rooke & Lonnie Hamilton III
Road Diets
Priority: High | Cost: Low | Implementation: Short
Some 20% of Blacksburg’s carbon emissions come from transportation (Blacksburg Climate Action Plan (BCAP), 2016). The primary source of these emissions are automobiles, which emit carbon dioxide as they burn fossil fuels. In many cities across the United States, automobiles are essential to everyday travel, but within the borders of the town, that is not necessarily the case. The Blacksburg Climate Action Plan found that the average vehicle mile travelled per person per day was only about 10 (Blacksburg Climate Action Plan, 2016), making other forms of travel viable. To that end, Green New Deal funding would be tailored to exactly that - promoting and building out the infrastructure for alternative, lower-emission or emission-free modes of transportation.
​
A road diet is the practice of eliminating vehicle travel lanes on a four-lane undivided roadway. Typically, this involved converting it into a three-lane roadway with one lane carrying traffic in each direction and the center lane becoming a bidirectional turn lane.
Created by Lonnie Hamilton III from Google imagery
From Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research
Created by Lonnie Hamilton III from Google imagery
This has a number of benefits. According to the Federal Department of Transportation, it reduces crashes by between 19 and 47% (USDOT). It accomplishes this by reducing the conflicts between left-turning drivers, through-traffic, and other road users. Importantly, however, the newfound roadway space can be used for other modes of transportation. Sidewalks can be widened for pedestrians and dedicated bicycle infrastructure can be erected, making the street work for more than just cars, thus transforming them into ‘complete streets’.
​
Road dieting accomplishes the goals of the Green New Deal by providing infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists to use, providing an alternative to traveling solely by automobile. Studies show that the existence of pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure leads to an uptick in travel via those modes (Félix, 2020), meaning that road diets convert some drivers into pedestrians and cyclists. Some of the extra space can also be used for tree canopy placement, which help offset carbon and provide shade for those new pedestrians and cyclists.
​
There are currently two corridors recommended for road dieting:
-
Patrick Henry Drive from Toms Creek Road to Giles Road
-
North Main Street from Prices Fork Road to Giles Road (northern terminus)
​
These routes were chosen because they form part of the backbone of the town’s transportation channels. They were also chosen because road diets on these corridors would not lead to any appreciable decrease in vehicle throughput. A University of Washington study on road diets cites a figure stating that around 20,000-23,000 average daily vehicles is the threshold at which road diets lead to an increase in congestion (Desmond, 2015). Virginia Department of Transportation traffic counts for Blacksburg show that the highest daily vehicle count for the specific North Main corridor is 19,000, while for the Patric Henry corridor it is only 8,800 (VDOT).
​
Road diets on these corridors would be inexpensive to implement while providing and promoting emission-free modes of transportation in Blacksburg. This is not to mention the health benefits of cycling and walking. They also provide the benefit of additional tree cover, which provides benefits of its own while offsetting carbon emissions from vehicular traffic along the corridors.