road diet

n. the reduction of a roadway’s width or lanes, intended to change traffic patterns. Subjects: English, Architecture, Automobiles & Transportation, Jargon

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Citations: 1999 Dan Burden, Peter Lagerwey Road Diets: Fixing the Big Roads p. 3: The Road Diet. “Road dieting” is a new term applied to “skinnying up” patients (streets) into leaner, more productive members of society. 2000 Dan Hulbert Atlanta Journal and Constitution (Ga.) (May 19) “Bicycling Advocate Dennis Hoffarth Leads The Campaign To Make Atlanta More Bike-Friendly” p. 1C: DeKalb County says it will convert a section of North Decatur Road from four car lanes to three car and two bicycle lanes, the first “road diet” project of its kind in the metro area. 2001 Rai Demopoulos London Free Press (Ontario, Can.) (Apr.2) “Road Growth Not Always The Answer” p. A13: When roads were actually closed, or their capacity severely reduced, 20 per cent to 60 per cent of the former traffic disappears entirely. It isn’t even siphoned off onto other roads. People just travel less. Some experts scoff, but cases of accidental or deliberate “road diets” prove the point. 2003 Andy Clarke Federal Highway Administration’s Public Roads Magazine (July ) “Bikeways and Pathways”: A study of these “road diets”—the change of a roadway from four lanes to three—shows that four-lane streets with up to 20,000 vehicles per day are candidates for this kind of treatment. 2004 Jessica Vanegeren Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.) (Nov. 13) “Why did the shopper cross the road?”: The concept of dropping lanes to improve pedestrian safety, which also tends to benefit street-side businesses, is known as a road diet. Most roads are put on diets when their traffic counts approach 12,000 cars a day,

Posted 18 Nov 04 | Permalink | Tell a Friend