Access

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Source: FHWA Access refers to the demand for vehicular entry and exit to and from driveways and crossroads that intersect with an arterial.  These driveways and crossroads are commonly referred to as access points. Access points present a number of planning and design challenges and potential hazards along the roadway. Each access point represents a potential conflict between turning and through-moving vehicles, pedestrians, and bicycles on the thoroughfare, as illustrated in the diagrams at right. Greater access point density increases the number of potential conflicts along the thoroughfare.

Source: FHWA

Access management refers to the regulation of access point location and spacing and is a crucial part of creating a great street that is safe for all modes. Access management is intended to balance mobility for through-traffic and access for vehicles attempting to enter or leave the roadway, while ensuring maximum safety for all users. Typically, a roadway's functional classification guides the location and spacing of access points.

Access management plans must be site-specific and place-based.  The figure at right depicts the traditional relationship between access and functional classification.

Source: FHWA

At the top of the functional class hierarchy (principal arterial freeways), mobility is provided at the expense of access; at the bottom (the local road system), extensive access is provided, which limits mobility. Planning and designing great streets requires finding the most appropriate balance between access and mobility, according to place type. While local guidelines can sometimes be useful, standard solutions based solely on functional classification rarely produce desirable outcomes.

Tradeoffs are inherent in every roadway access point decision.  Balancing competing interests is critical to successful implementation, and is perhaps one of the biggest challenges in designing great streets.  Allowing unlimited access points would undermine the safety and efficiency of the thoroughfare.  Conversely, prohibiting all access would render adjacent properties essentially worthless.

Source: FHWA

Access must be considered on a case-by-case basis.  The owning transportation agency (the state, county, or local municipality), controls access rights along roadways within a jurisdiction.  Most agencies have policies in place to regulate new and existing access point development. Nonetheless, access plays such a critical role in determining the environment along a roadway that planners, designers, and stakeholders are encouraged to carefully examine projects on a case-by-case basis.  

Site-specific conditions and community objectives should always be taken into account when deciding how to manage and control roadway access. Specific spacing requirements will vary based on site-specific conditions.  The ITE Traffic Handbook Table 10-5 provides guidance for minimum spacing requirements.

MoDOT's Access Management Guide identifies four major goals of access management:

• Improve roadway safety
• Improve traffic operations
• Protect taxpayer investment in the roadway
• Create better conditions for non-motorized modes of travel

MoDOT emphasizes that the guidelines are intended to allow for flexibility when necessary, and their overarching goal is to provide a safe and efficient transportation system while balancing the need for access to abutting land uses. Broad standards should not be applied without careful consideration of a project's unique characteristics.

Traffic impact studies should consider the large-scale transportation network (current and planned) before access permits are granted.  Developers are typically required to conduct a traffic impact study before gaining approval for new developments. Unfortunately, each individual development usually conducts its own study, failing to capture the cumulative impacts of all proposed developments in the area. In such cases, a project may be approved because its impact on the roadway seems reasonable, but the combined impact of several projects can create traffic problems along the thoroughfare.  

Characteristics that influence access in Residential Neighborhoods:

• Numerous abutting single-use residential parcels with individual access needs, but relatively low demand for each parcel
• Lower travel speeds
• Significant pedestrian presence
• Possible transit presence

Credit: CH2M HILL

Neighborhood corridors are typically abutted by single-use, residential parcels, as in the image at right.

In many cases, each parcel will have a separate access point, although backage roads or alleys can also be used to provide off-street access.

The relatively small number of trips generated by each parcel typically does not present a major conflict to through-traffic.  These thoroughfares may serve as transit routes if the abutting neighborhoods provide sufficient density.

Credit: CH2M HILL

Crossroad access points can be signalized or unsignalized.  

Regular intersection spacing is important for overall efficiency and traffic progression along the thoroughfare, especially for signalized intersections, as shown at right. 

In residential areas, traffic signals are typically less common. If multiple signals are present, they should be spaced at least one-quarter mile apart.  Unsignalized intersections occur more frequently along residential streets. 

Credit: CH2M HILL

Typically, traffic on the lower volume/minor road is controlled by a stop sign, allowing traffic on the major thoroughfare to flow freely (as shown at right). 

Unsignalized crossroads with more traffic and a greater number of turning movements (> 50 vph in the peak hour) should consider adding deceleration lanes on the thoroughfare street. 

Deceleration lanes allow vehicles to pull out of the through-travel stream before turning, resulting in safer traffic operations on the thoroughfare. 

This treatment may necessitate acquiring additional right-of-way, and the potential impacts to adjacent parcels should be considered. 

The lower travel speeds in residential areas improve a driver's ability to perceive and react to conflicts created by access points.  Because most residential driveways have a relatively low daily demand and present minimal conflict to through-traffic on the main thoroughfare, access points may be provided more frequently than in place types with higher travel speeds.  Spacing requirements will vary based on site-specific conditions and local codes. 

Although the number of driveways along a residential thoroughfare is generally proportional to the crash rate, the lower demand per driveway experienced along residential streets renders each access point less of a safety concern than those in a high density commercial environment, for example. 

Shared access, or the consolidation of access for multiple residents, can improve the efficiency and safety of residential thoroughfares, especially in areas with substantive safety concerns.  Driveway consolidation also reduces the quantity of impervious surfaces in an area, thus reducing the impact on stormwater management requirements (see the Drainage section of this guide for more details).

Plan for pedestrian and bicycle movement. These thoroughfares should prioritize pedestrians along the street, and especially at the intersections. Intersections will provide the vast majority of vehicular access along the street, so it is vitally important to provide safe, efficient crossings and refuges for pedestrians at these locations. See the Intersections section of this guide for more detail.

The pedestrian environment along these corridors must be prioritized. Special signage to remind drivers to watch for pedestrians, as shown in the image at right, can be useful in managing this conflict when curb cuts and driveways are required.

Reduce points of conflict. Bicycles will also be at conflict with access points along the corridor. Whether cyclists travel along a marked bicycle lane, a wide outside lane, or along a shoulder, they will inevitably have to cross driveways and intersections. Where regular bicycle use is expected/desired, driveways should be limited. Drivers attempting to enter the thoroughfare from a driveway are often fixated on traffic approaching from the left, and may edge out onto the thoroughfare without looking back to the right to check for pedestrians. Bicycle-specific measures should be provided at intersections to prioritize bicycling at these locations. 

The crossroad access points/intersections will generally be of two types: signalized or unsignalized. Both types have important characteristics to consider in the development of great streets. For signalized intersections, regular spacing is beneficial for the efficiency of the greater thoroughfare. Minimum signal spacing for these place types should be one-quarter mile. Signalized access points can provide a safer pedestrian environment by including pedestrian crossing signals and, if appropriate, restricted turning movements during pedestrian crossings.

Unsignalized intersections are more frequent and create more potential conflicts between cars, pedestrians and bicycles. They are usually controlled by stop signs on the minor road without stopping traffic on the thoroughfare itself. They may represent a minor road crossing, a parking lot entrance, or an atypical larger parcel entrance. Pedestrian visibility is always important, but even more so at unsignalized intersections.

Access points create conflicts for through-moving vehicles and pedestrians.  Drivers are typically focused on vehicular traffic when attempting to enter or exit a particular thoroughfare, and may fail to see a pedestrian crossing the driveway.  Drivers attempting to enter the thoroughfare from a driveway are often fixated on traffic approaching from the left, and may edge out onto the thoroughfare without looking back to the right to check for pedestrians.  In areas with a significant pedestrian presence, the number of driveways should be minimized to the extent practicable.  At higher volume access points, signage reminding drivers to watch for pedestrians can be used to minimize conflicts. 

Consider transit access. In these place types, transit may be present. Even if it is not currently, it may be in the future. Mobility for transit is important to consider, and it requires careful examination of access along the street. Transit lanes, queue jumpers, and bus stop location/design are all important elements to be considered along neighborhood thoroughfares.

The transit lane (could also be a shared transit/HOV/bike lane) condition provides a continuous bus-only lane throughout the entire corridor. These concepts can be very effective in prioritizing mobility for other modes, but they do have impacts on abutting access requirements.  When such measures are provided on the outside of the travel way, they will conflict with every driveway along the corridor.

Managing the location and spacing of such driveways, then, is imperative in order to encourage transit along the street. Failure to do so will inhibit the intended prioritization of transit. Spacing guidance should be developed on a case-specific basis, and it should be coordinated with local businesses and residents whose parcels abut the street. When transit lanes are provided down the center of the street, as in the image at right, conflicts with adjacent driveways are lessened. The center location, however, creates another set of conflicts to manage the movement of pedestrians to and from median transit stops. Pedestrian crossing, perhaps even mid-block pedestrian signals, should be provided in close proximity to median transit stops.

Consider access to bus stops. Such access must be provided efficiently and safely, without degrading operations for other modes along the corridor. Three general options are available for bus stop location: mid-block, near side, and far side. The tables at right describe the advantages and disadvantages to consider for each of these conditions. Each specific site condition will have characteristics that influence the best choice for bus stop location, and it is imperative that they be examined as such. There is no "one size fits all" solution that should be applied blindly across an entire corridor.

Regardless of location, clear and visible signing should be present to aid pedestrians in locating nearby bus stops. Chapters 9 and 10 of the ITE guide Context Sensitive Solutions in Designing Major Urban Thoroughfares for Walkable Communities provides additional information on these subjects.

Use raised medians, when appropriate. Ideally, thoroughfares in residential areas will have slow vehicle speeds and narrow crossings to facilitate pedestrian ease and safety. However, it is possible that a thoroughfare through a residential area could be improved with the use of raised medians.  

Raised medians reduce the number of access-related conflicts by restricting left turn movements to the access points across from an opening in the median. Access to driveways is confined to right-in, right-out movements, reducing the number of potential conflicts from nine (9) to three (3) at a standard 3-legged intersection (see Oregon PDF for additional detail on right-in, right-out channelization design).

Medians can help create a more urban-style access management plan but they also create issues for drivers seeking access to both sides of the thoroughfare. U-turns are generally not recommended in areas with a significant presence of pedestrians and bicycles because they reduce predictability. Careful network planning is important to accommodate the desired travel patterns and facilitate access to both sides of a thoroughfare.

• Raised medians can help reduce vehicle speeds by creating more visual friction in the thoroughfare.
• Raised medians provide opportunity for pedestrian refuges, when crossing distances are long. Raised medians with this purpose must be carefully designed, including a preferred minimum refuge width of 6 feet if pedestrians are intended to remain in the refuge during a signal cycle. These medians should extend beyond the crosswalk towards the intersection for pedestrian safety.

  Design of the refuge should include application of turn tem­plates for trucks and the design vehicle for u-turns. Reflectors and raised delineators as well as the use of colored concrete can increase the visibility of the median refuge as well as the pedestrians using it. The figure below/at right shows a pedestrian refuge island that addresses some of these safety concerns.

  The image on the left is a collage of pedestrian refuge designs from cities throughout the U.S. and Europe. Although wider refuges are desirable, narrow width (e.g., 4-foot-wide) pedestrian refuges do meet minimum width requirements identified in many of the U.S. documents on urban thoroughfare design.

  AASHTO's "Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets" (2001) says that 4 feet is the minimum width.  ITE's Design and Safety of Pedestrian Facilities (March 1998) states that the minimum width for pedestrian refuge island is 4 feet.

• Raised medians provide the opportunity for attractive landscaping (see the Safety section of this guide for more information about issues related to trees or other fixed objects in the median). Landscaping, along with other objects in the median should allow for the recommended clear zone. AASHTO recognizes that "space for clear zones is generally restricted" and suggests that a "minimum offset distance of 18 inches should be provided beyond the face of the curb." 

Resources

PDFs:

• Oregon DOT Right-In, Right-Out Channelization Report
• Capacity and Operational Effects of Midblock Left-Turn Lanes
• Safety of U-Turns at Unsignalized Median Openings
• A Guidebook for Including Access Management in Transportation Planning
• Access Rights
• Development of the Des Moines Access Management Plan
• Safe Access is Good for Business (FHWA)
• Comparison of Raised Medians and Two-Way Left-Turn Lanes
• ITE Context Sensitive Solutions in Designing Major Urban Thoroughfares for Walkable Communities (See Chapter 7)

Links:

• ITE Context Sensitive Solutions in Designing Major Urban Thoroughfares for Walkable Communities, Chapter 7
• FHWA Flexibility in Highway Design, Chapter 4 Design Controls
• Massachusetts Design Guide, Chapter 15 Access Management
• Access management resources from TRB
• Iowa State Access Management Toolkit
• Center for Urban Transportation Research Access Management Projects and Publications
• Access Management General Information and Guidelines - MoDOT
• Access Management Guidelines (document) - MoDOT
• Access Management Links and Publications - FDOT

Other References:

(not currently available in electronic format)

• AASHTO Guide for the Planning, Design, and Operation of Pedestrian Facilities, Chapter 3 (available from the AASHTO bookstore)
• AASHTO Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets (Green Book), Chapter 2 and Chapter 7 (available from the AASHTO bookstore)
• ITE Traffic Engineering Handbook