Comment 52363

By SpaceMonkey (registered) | Posted November 29, 2010 at 16:22:03

From http://www.ti.org/vaupdate30.html

The evidence that two-way streets are more dangerous than one way is overwhelming. In many cases, two-way streets result in twice as many pedestrian accidents as one way.

One review of two-way to one-way conversions found that two-way streets caused 163 percent more pedestrian accidents in Sacramento, and 100 percent more pedestrian accidents in Portland OR, Hollywood FL, and Raleigh NC. This study called one-way streets "the most effective urban counter-measure" to pedestrian accidents.

One-way streets also lead to fewer motor vehicle collisions. While the reduction in collisions is not as great as the reduction in pedestrian accidents, Michael Cunneen says, "two-way streets are designed more for auto body shops than for people or cars."

Since most conversions of two-way to one-way streets were done in the 1950s, few studies are available on the internet. The above-cited study is from 1976, and is titled "National Highway Safety Needs Study," published by the Research Triangle Institute for the US Department of Transportation.

The claim that slowing traffic will reduce the safety problems of two-way streets is diminished by the fact that congested streets with narrow lanes will also slow emergency service vehicles. As pointed out in "The Vanishing Automobile," studies of traffic calming show that delays to emergency service vehicles will kill far more people than will be saved by the slower speeds (p. 352).

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