What is it?
A road diet - also called "rightsizing" a road - eliminates lanes to add parking, sidewalks, bike lanes, or other infrastructural improvements. It's a proven way of increasing safety for both drivers and pedestrians.
Currently, sidewalks on Center are narrower than strollers, crossing the street is an extreme sport, and cars often move at 40+ miles an hour. The U.S. Department of Transportation has reported several benefits of road diets, including reducing accident rates 19 to 47 percent, reducing vehicle speeds, improving mobility and access by all road users, and bringing economic benefits to surrounding businesses by encouraging people to slow and stop. Check out lots more info on road diets from USDOT here.
The Omaha Public Works Department completed a one-year traffic study of Center Street in August 2017 and the findings favored the possibility of conducting a road diet. Read the full report here.
A 3-lane road (2 driving + 1 turning) can efficiently carry 18,000 cars per day, and a 2-lane road can carry 12,000. Center Street is currently 5 lanes (four driving lanes + 1 turning lane), even though the current daily motor vehicle traffic breakdown is:
A road diet on Center would be fairly easy to implement. The sidewalks probably wouldn't change initially (that's usually the job of property owners), so it would basically just involve repainting the stripes in different places and could be done the next time the street is resurfaced. However, it would require relocating the traffic signal light the intersection of Center and 36th, which carries a price tag of about $150,000. Currently Public Works does not intend to fund this project.
UPDATE: As of January 2019, the resurfacing has been scheduled and funded, but the road diet has not. Waiting to do the diet until a later date would be very wasteful and put at risk many of the other efforts already underway on Center. Please contact the City to urge funding for the road diet immediately!
A road diet - also called "rightsizing" a road - eliminates lanes to add parking, sidewalks, bike lanes, or other infrastructural improvements. It's a proven way of increasing safety for both drivers and pedestrians.
Currently, sidewalks on Center are narrower than strollers, crossing the street is an extreme sport, and cars often move at 40+ miles an hour. The U.S. Department of Transportation has reported several benefits of road diets, including reducing accident rates 19 to 47 percent, reducing vehicle speeds, improving mobility and access by all road users, and bringing economic benefits to surrounding businesses by encouraging people to slow and stop. Check out lots more info on road diets from USDOT here.
The Omaha Public Works Department completed a one-year traffic study of Center Street in August 2017 and the findings favored the possibility of conducting a road diet. Read the full report here.
A 3-lane road (2 driving + 1 turning) can efficiently carry 18,000 cars per day, and a 2-lane road can carry 12,000. Center Street is currently 5 lanes (four driving lanes + 1 turning lane), even though the current daily motor vehicle traffic breakdown is:
- 36th & Center = 17,000
- 32nd & Center = 12,000
A road diet on Center would be fairly easy to implement. The sidewalks probably wouldn't change initially (that's usually the job of property owners), so it would basically just involve repainting the stripes in different places and could be done the next time the street is resurfaced. However, it would require relocating the traffic signal light the intersection of Center and 36th, which carries a price tag of about $150,000. Currently Public Works does not intend to fund this project.
UPDATE: As of January 2019, the resurfacing has been scheduled and funded, but the road diet has not. Waiting to do the diet until a later date would be very wasteful and put at risk many of the other efforts already underway on Center. Please contact the City to urge funding for the road diet immediately!
Current street design.
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Possible design after road diet, extension of sidewalks, and landscaping.
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Risks: What to be aware of as we go forward
Expense
Besides the $150k for relocating the traffic signal, a more holistic study and engineering plan for the area would require $15-25k. There's no current plan for funding either.
Inconvenience During the Change
It should only take a few days or weeks to resurface and stripe the street, but during that time, access to Center Street would be limited and both businesses and residents inconvenienced.
Sidewalks May Not Change
Sidewalks are legally the responsibility of property owners, so even with a road diet, we can't guarantee that the sidewalks would be widened, unless the property owners are willing to pitch in to have that done. We do not yet have a Center Street Business Association or Business Improvement District that ties together all the businesses and/or property owners to collectively invest in improving the area (e.g. through sidewalks, benches, flowers, etc.) If we don't have that in place when the road diet happens, it just means that we'd have to undo and redo parts of the work later, at additional cost and inconvenience.
Rewards: Why it's important for Center Street
This will help with the community's vision for Safe, Pedestrian-Friendly Street Redesign. Converting Center Street from a 5-lane road to a 3-lane road will improve access to businesses on the street, improve walkability and create a safer travel zone for both pedestrians and drivers, and the addition of on-street parking opens the way for rezoning.
How You Can Help with the Road Diet
We have already gotten approval for the road diet (yay! that was a big year-long project!). However, the issue now is funding. While the city currently has in the budget to resurface the street (a fresh layer of asphalt), they are not planning on changing the layout. We need you to speak up and urge the Mayor, your Councilperson and Public Works to includes this additional cost to finish the job!
In addition, we would like the city to think beyond restriping. Even if the city can't fund it, we'd like them to plan ahead to accommodate a more holistic redesign of the street - including sidewalks, bike infrastructure, landscaping, etc. - so we can be efficient with resources and not UN-do work that's just been done.
1) Click here to contact the Mayor’s Office and ask for funding for the Center Street road diet in the upcoming CIP. Copy your Councilperson and Public Works while you're at it! Click here for contact information for phone, email, Twitter, and Facebook and a here for short letter or phone call text you can edit and borrow from.
2) Sign up for the email list and/or join us on Facebook and keep an eye on your email for additional actions.
Expense
Besides the $150k for relocating the traffic signal, a more holistic study and engineering plan for the area would require $15-25k. There's no current plan for funding either.
Inconvenience During the Change
It should only take a few days or weeks to resurface and stripe the street, but during that time, access to Center Street would be limited and both businesses and residents inconvenienced.
Sidewalks May Not Change
Sidewalks are legally the responsibility of property owners, so even with a road diet, we can't guarantee that the sidewalks would be widened, unless the property owners are willing to pitch in to have that done. We do not yet have a Center Street Business Association or Business Improvement District that ties together all the businesses and/or property owners to collectively invest in improving the area (e.g. through sidewalks, benches, flowers, etc.) If we don't have that in place when the road diet happens, it just means that we'd have to undo and redo parts of the work later, at additional cost and inconvenience.
Rewards: Why it's important for Center Street
This will help with the community's vision for Safe, Pedestrian-Friendly Street Redesign. Converting Center Street from a 5-lane road to a 3-lane road will improve access to businesses on the street, improve walkability and create a safer travel zone for both pedestrians and drivers, and the addition of on-street parking opens the way for rezoning.
How You Can Help with the Road Diet
We have already gotten approval for the road diet (yay! that was a big year-long project!). However, the issue now is funding. While the city currently has in the budget to resurface the street (a fresh layer of asphalt), they are not planning on changing the layout. We need you to speak up and urge the Mayor, your Councilperson and Public Works to includes this additional cost to finish the job!
In addition, we would like the city to think beyond restriping. Even if the city can't fund it, we'd like them to plan ahead to accommodate a more holistic redesign of the street - including sidewalks, bike infrastructure, landscaping, etc. - so we can be efficient with resources and not UN-do work that's just been done.
1) Click here to contact the Mayor’s Office and ask for funding for the Center Street road diet in the upcoming CIP. Copy your Councilperson and Public Works while you're at it! Click here for contact information for phone, email, Twitter, and Facebook and a here for short letter or phone call text you can edit and borrow from.
2) Sign up for the email list and/or join us on Facebook and keep an eye on your email for additional actions.
