Town of Cary
Home MenuWhat is a Road Diet?
A road diet is a transportation strategy aimed at improving the safety, efficiency, and livability of streets. It involves reducing the number of vehicle lanes and adding multi-modal amenities like bike lanes, wider sidewalks, and enhanced pedestrian crossings. The idea is to be equitable in how we use our streets, encouraging bicycling and walking while also making it safer for drivers to navigate.
Additionally, a road diet may help to slow traffic through the use of median islands, traffic calming features, and on-street parking. Ultimately, road diets can be used to promote healthier and greener alternative ways of getting around and improve our community's quality of life.
Common Road Diet Application
More information on road diets can be found on the U.S. Department of Transportation website.
What makes a good road diet?
There’s no “one size fits all” approach in Cary’s transportation system and road diets are no exception. A successful road diet strikes a balance between vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians to improve safety for all of them, while maintaining acceptable operations along the corridor.
In planning for road diets, Cary staff will evaluate many elements of the street network, including:
- Vehicle volume and average speed
- Bicycle and pedestrian use
- Connections to parks and greenways
- Future land use and planned development
An effective road diet may result in:
- Lower travel speeds
- Reduced conflict points
- Shorter crossing distances for pedestrians and bicyclists
- Opportunities to provide better accommodations for all road users
Cary has a history of successfully employing road diets. Several Cary roads have been redesigned to reduce the number of vehicular travel lanes, providing new bicycle accommodations.
Kildaire Farm Road (2010)
Lake Pine Drive (2012)
Do you have input to share on road diets in Cary? Visit 311Cary or check out the project pages for our active road diet projects.