Amir Ranjbar - Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
Sana Peiravian - Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Street design is a key element of smart growth development and directly affects qualityof life and its safety. Designers are encouraged to integrate streets closely with plannedland use. At first look the word road diet sounds like the dining habits of some asphaltchompingogre. And it kind of is! But what does it really mean A road diet, also called a lane reduction or road lane reallocations, is atechnique in transportation planning whereby the number of travel lanes and/oreffective width of the road is reduced in order to achieve systemic improvements. Road Diets have been increasingly utilized by agencies to improve roadwaysafety, multi-modal accessibility, and traffic operations in a cost-effective manner.Agencies have also implemented these projects as a tool for stimulating the localeconomy and achieving broader environmental goals. To-date, the majority of roaddiets have been implemented on low to moderately-trafficked four-lane bi-directionalroadways, converting these to three lane cross-sections (two through lanes and centerturn-lane). These often utilize the additional space from this conversion for on-streetparking, bike lanes, or other uses increasing the overall utility of the roadway. In thecorrect context, four to three lane road diet projects have shown to have substantialbenefits, including vehicle collision reductions, reduction in speeding, traffic flowimprovement, and increased bicycle and pedestrian safety.

Road Diet, traffic, Roadway safety, pedestrian