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What
is Access Management?
In basic terms, access management is a group of strategies,
tools, and techniques that work to optimize the safety and efficiency
of our roads.
For
example, let’s take a commercial strip that has developed
over several decades along both sides of a two lane road.
Without access management, the 100 businesses with frontage
on the strip would all have individual curb cuts for their
driveways that let you get into their often small parking
lot. People trying to get into a businesses would slow traffic
behind them, and if turning left across the oncoming traffic
lane, a number of risks arise:
To cars in the oncoming lane, or cars slowing behind the
turning vehicle, who risk accidents
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To pedestrians trying to walk along the road, at risk when
they cross a driveway
To bicyclists riding along the shoulder, facing risk as
traffic behind the turning vehicle try to use the shoulder
to get around the bottleneck
(Source: Access Management
Guidebook, Humstone & Campoli, 1996)
Multiply
this times 100 businesses all day long, and you could have
a real mess. Sprawl would be rampant and uncontrolled, safety
would be highly compromised, the resulting traffic snarls
frustrate shoppers and travelers alike. Everyone loses: businesses,
residents, and travelers.
Access
management is the solution to these very real problems. It
helps residential developers build safer neighborhoods. It
offers ways to group businesses, their customer access, and
their parking lots together, reducing costs and maximizing
efficiency. It facilitates left turning without slowing traffic
or compromising safety. It makes roadways safer and more inviting
for customers, pedestrians, and bicyclists. |
