Road diet

[6] The resulting extra non-car space can be used for pedestrian zones or refuges, medians, sidewalks, shoulders, parking, or bike lanes.

[4] After reducing the number and/or the width of lanes, the freed-up space is used to provide or enhance some of the following features: Researchers and the U.S. Department of Transportation (Federal Highway Administration) have found that road diets, when properly implemented, can be expected to reduce overall crash frequency 19-47%[3] with the higher crash reductions occurring in small urban areas than in metropolitan areas.

[8] Additional studies have shown that road diets often achieve these positive effects without reducing traffic volumes.

A 2004 study by the Federal Highway Administration found that properly installed road diets decreased the risk of collisions and serious injury.

[9] After the 2018 Camp Fire, the Los Angeles Times noted that a previously four lane road through the downtown area of the remote California mountain town of Paradise had been converted to one lane in each direction in order to increase pedestrian safety and friendliness for shopping, and questioned whether this added to the gridlock during evacuation.

They’re just not built to do that.”[10] The Iowa Department of Transportation, along with the CDC funded a study to change the perception of emergency response time in relation to road diets.

The study looked at a single road dieted arterial in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and found no material improvement or reduction in response times.

[15] San Jose, California has implemented several road diets since November 2011, when the City Council unanimously adopted its "Envision 2040" General Plan,[16] which calls for road diets on streets with excess vehicle capacity "to provide wider sidewalks, bicycle lanes, transit amenities, and/or landscaping".

[21] Palo Alto, California has studied reducing the number of travel lanes to improve safety on some of its busiest streets since adopting a new Comprehensive Plan in 1998.

75-yr-old local resident Ming Yuan Zuo was killed by a pickup truck driver while walking across Embarcadero Road in January 2013.

However, due mainly to opposition from businesses alongside the road in June 2014, Woodstock Avenue was returned to its previous four-lane configuration.