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Fixing Ford and Washington

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Do all of these, in the right order/way/buy-in. btw, i’m pretending it’s easy. it’s not trivial, but it is doable:

Step 1: Install car-friendly roundabouts targeting a ~20 mph throughput speed throughout the city and eliminate all stopsigns and stoplights #

Please see about roundabouts.

It might not be possible to eliminate every stop sign and light, but I think a 90% reduction is very reasonable.

You’ll know it’s working when vehicles, with very minimal signage, comfortably and casually move through the city at a speed of about about 20 miles per hour, no matter where they’re starting and finishing their journey.

Critically, the turns/roundabouts need to function adequately in the following ways:

  • automobile drivers making left and right turns
  • automobile drivers going straight through the intersection
  • bicyclists making turns
  • bicyclists going straight
  • one should never have to stop completely
  • at night
  • in rush hour
  • in rain/heavy rain/snow/heavy snow

Here’s the complete guide to roundabouts. It’s from the Netherlands, who have refined mobility networks:

Step 2: increase friction to drivers trying to cut through Golden #

Here’s how google maps “views” the primary roads through some of Golden:

ford and related roads

And here’s Ford, which you can see very clearly is also many other big roads:

rest of ford

Step 4: Fix the average throughput problem on rt 6 #

  1. Block off Washington over the bridge and through downtown, completely. (please see below “after” )

That’s it!

Golden before:

before

Golden after:

after

The green line would be made easy for cars to move along.

The yellow lines would indicate where “people first” road design would be used, ultimately, though it’ll take a variety of treatments to get it all safe/pleasant/usable in all conditions, but at minimum all intersections would be roundabouts.

It’s not that big of a change, to the cars. This won’t fix all the bad traffic, but it will help.

Critically, if you can naturally keep cars (and other vehicles) moving in a close-to-free-flow way, now you can loop streetcars back into the picture, because they can keep up with traffic and such

Resources worth reading #

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