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Traffic Bottlenecks

Combating Bottlenecks!

A Sampling of Successful Efforts Nationwide

There are very few "cookie cutter" solutions to everyday traffic problems. Differences in volumes, right of way, design, funding, and many other variables help decide what measures are best for which locations. The summaries below are merely a sampling of one or two examples in these states as to how they have attacked a bottleneck problem.

• Kansas
  • Kansas 2010 legislation allows buses to use Interstate shoulders to skirt congestion when conditions prevail.
  • KC "Scout" program installs ramp meters in 2009
• Ohio
  • Dualizing a former one-lane off ramp will remove backups onto the mainline, and will help address a high crash section of highway that suffers from poor weaving in advance of the off-ramp.
  • Implementing Access Management principles will result in a less congested corridor.

• New Hampshire - Advancing part of larger project to clear up a mess sooner than later.

• Delaware - Proactive contract procurement to advance needed roadwork.

• North Carolina - Prioritizing congestion-related projects to marshal resources sooner.

• Arizona - "Widening the gate" at Grand Canyon National Park, and improving a poor weaving area elsewhere.

• Michigan - Reconfiguring interchange ramps (including building roundabouts at the top of the ramps) instead of rebuilding the whole interchange.

• Utah - Installation of a Continuous Flow Intersection (CFI) in lieu of a traditional fix.

• Texas
  • Until a long-range fix can occur, Texas will use auxiliary lanes to collect and disperse traffic from the heavy mainline volumes on SH 183.
  • Using Proactive Rather than Reactive Signal Operations
• Pennsylvania
  • Administrating a funded program that focuses on congestion-related problems, and seeks low-cost, proactive solutions.
  • Erasing a high-accident, high-delay "no acceleration lane" merge by using available shoulder to create one.
  • Use of Shoulder Allows for Lengthened Merge

• Connecticut - Restripe to change from a 3+1 lane configuration to a 2+2 configuration (with the center lane becoming an option either way.)

• Tennessee - Adding lanes through a tight weaving area to give drivers more room to make better decisions.

• Rhode Island - Employing roundabouts where feasible to carry continuous volumes (instead of forced, periodic signal stops).

• New Jersey - Corridor improvements, including access management techniques, to improve Route 17.

• New York
  • Calming "the perfect storm" of commuter and weekend get-away traffic.
  • "Midtown in Motion" will enable downtown Manhattan traffic signals to respond to real-time conditions

• Arkansas - Employing Continuous Flow Intersections following a study of their efficacy and a search for candidate locations.

• District of Columbia - Identification of a retaining wall that was causing a capacity restriction.

• Washington - Listening to a citizen's suggestion and acting upon it.

• Indiana - Multi-headed solutions at one interchange will save from having to tear it down and rebuild it completely.

• Wisconsin
  • Calming "The Zoo" and ramp metering elsewhere.
  • U.S. 12 (Madison Beltline) at Old Sauk Road - Rather than rebuild part or all of a 70's style traditional diamond interchange, only the two most congested ramps (diagonally opposite of each other) were addressed.
• California
  • Los Angeles - City wide "Operation Bottleneck" began in 2006 to identify the worst bottleneck intersections on the city grid and apply signal adjustments or identify other potential solutions (i.e., turn lanes, remove curb parking, etc.) to improve operations.
  • Los Angeles - A new high-tech system from New Zealand will be installed on L.A.'s 110 freeway, which will feature sensors that will know when traffic slows and open an alternate lane automatically.
  • "SWARM"ing to relieve congestion with "adaptive" ramp metering.
  • San Francisco - Thus, a perennial member (4th worst in 2008) of the nation's top 10 worst segments was dramatically improved (now 491st in 2009) with some new paint.

• Maryland
  • Not all "low cost" congestion projects are actually low cost! This one is $75M to grade-separate Randolph Road at Georgia Avenue in Wheaton, MD.
  • Stopping a ramp queue from backing onto the mainline.
• Florida
  • Replacing an old off-ramp+signal with a slip ramp
  • Try it! You'll like it! A trial traffic pattern worked so well that it became a permanent fix.

• Georgia - Ramp metering program provides one response to the Governor's "Fast Forward" initiative to alleviate congestion.

• Mississippi - Using the shoulders to add capacity to I-10 following the loss of the US 90 bridge over Biloxi Bay as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

• Minnesota
  • A long-suffering need for an auxiliary lane was finally executed. Look what happened!
  • A 6-4-6 lane section of highway was made a continuous 6-lane section.
  • Modified two sub-standard interchanges.
  • MN Proposes expanding use of Dynamic Shoulder Lanes (and: "what is a DSL anyway"?)

• Virginia - First congestion relief shoulder lane on I-495 (VA beltway) inner loop will have colored asphalt to identify this lane.