The supply of residential access streets and secondary arterial roads

Access streets and collector or secondary arterial roads comprise the circulation system for residential areas. A very common pattern in North America for these roads is the rectangular grid. In this work an idealized model is used to determine what traffic control measures should be implemented and what spacing of collector streets should be adopted so as to minimize overall travel time. From this base a sequence of design changes is developed that is most "cost-effective" in improving the residential environment. The cost of the changes is in increased total travel time, the benefit in reduction of traffic on streets fronting homes. It is found that travel time is highly insensitive to changes in arterial street spacing and hence it is recommended that present arterials be left alone. Other recommendations concern access streets. It is shown that as far as possible traffic should be restricted to one set of parallel streets, preferably those with the least facing dwellings, and that these be managed to discourage through traffic while avoiding inconvenience to other users.