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How to fix stroads

Fixing a stroad isn’t always simple, because they represent a confluence of competing land use and transportation goals: promote efficient vehicle travel while also facilitating economic opportunity and access to goods, services, and recreation.

A stroad usually evolves because land use practices have already allowed for business developments along an existing roadway, at which point it is too late to prevent the evolution of a stroad, but not too late to fix it.

Can stroads be prevented?

But it is possible to prevent the creation of a stroad in the first place through intentional land use practices. This would involve restricting new development along existing roads and allowing for more dense development along more people-friendly streets. Restricting the expansion of existing roadways (through lane widening or added lanes) can also help prevent street-to-stroad evolutions.

Similarly, reducing or eliminating parking minimums can allow for denser, less car-dependent hubs of development while also incentivizing non-vehicle modes of travel.

Preventing stroads could also involve converting roads into streets when new developments are proposed along existing roads. Below, we’ll explore some strategies for turning roads or stroads into streets.

Turning stroads into roads

Because stroads already have businesses, services, and/or city amenities in residence, fixing a stroad usually means turning it into a proper street. Turning a stroad into a road is not always possible, because it might require removing existing destinations and potentially relocating them elsewhere — a costly, unpopular, and time-consuming prospect for businesses and residents alike.

In cases where stroads are converted into roads, this means prioritizing vehicle throughput, minimizing entrance and exit points along the road (e.g. reducing the number of driveways leading to shopping centers and other roadside destinations) and eliminating pedestrian and bike access to the road (potentially creating separated bikeways and pedestrians paths).

Turning stroads into streets

To make stroads safer, more sustainable, and better for the economy, cities can explore redesigning roadways to implement more street-like elements.

One powerful tool for turning stroads into streets is the road diet. Road diets remove or repurpose existing lanes of traffic in order to create safer, lower speed corridors. While this tactic is sometimes controversial due to concerns that removing lanes will increase congestion, careful traffic analysis often reveals that road diets do not create significant delays in travel time, especially if they make roadways safer for non-vehicle modes of travel or reroute a portion of traffic to other high-capacity roads.

*A road diet may repurpose existing vehicle lanes to create space for buffered bike lanes (highlighted in green) or other multimodal infrastructure.*

Similarly, adding multimodal infrastructure, especially infrastructure focused on bike and pedestrian safety such as protected bike lanes, signalized crossings, and pedestrian islands can help eliminate the common dangers of stroads. A Complete Streets policy can establish helpful guidelines for turning stroads into streets that accommodate all road users.

In addition to road diets, other traffic calming tactics such as reducing speed limits, narrowing lanes, or adding street art and landscaping can protect vulnerable road users from one of the top factors contributing to high traffic fatality rates: dangerous vehicle speeds. While street art and landscaping have been shown to reduce average driving speeds, they also help beautify stroads, making them more inviting and better for business. Adding lighting and benches can also further these goals.

Reducing parking, especially in locations with vast parking lots such as shopping centers, also helps disincentivize vehicle use and encourage other modes of travel like public transit, walking, and biking. Furthermore, eliminating parking can also free up space for housing, parks, dining courts, or other developments that give people reasons to visit more frequently and for longer periods of time, boosting economic activity.

In any case, converting a stroad into a street often takes time and may involve multiple strategies, so cities should focus on incremental improvements. [3]

parking lot with hundreds of spots empty

Data to improve safety on stroads

To find and fix stroads effectively, analyzing current traffic conditions is crucial. The following metrics can help planners and engineers understand where stroads are putting people at risk and determine the best strategies to address them:

Vehicle speeds – to pinpoint which roadways may qualify as stroads and monitor risk for Vulnerable Road Users like pedestrians and cyclists
Biking and Walking activity – to understand where Vulnerable Road Users contend with dangerous conditions and where to prioritize infrastructure to improve their safety and connectivity
Vehicle volumes – to understand roadway capacity and help assess whether a stroad should be converted into a road or a street
Routing and Origin-Destination patterns – to evaluate the potential for stroad-to-street conversions and where traffic could be rerouted or shifted to other modes like public transport
Turning Movement Counts – to determine where traffic lights, signalized crosswalks, or signal retiming can keep traffic flowing while improving safety

For a comprehensive guide to transportation safety analytics, download our Practitioner’s Guide to Transportation Safety.

Ben Abramson. Strong Towns. “5 Telltale Signs You’re on the Stroad From Hell.” January 19, 2023. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2023/1/19/5-telltale-signs-youre-on-the-stroad-from-hell
Strong Towns. “What’s a STROAD and Why Does It Matter?” March 2, 2018. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/3/1/whats-a-stroad-and-why-does-it-matter
Reliance Foundry. “Bad Urban Design: How do you fix a stroad?” https://www.reliance-foundry.com/blog/how-to-fix-a-stroad

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What Is Congestion Pricing, and Is It Always the Right Choice?

congestion pricing scenario in Manhattan, NYC

In the nation’s busiest urban areas, transportation planners are faced with the urgent task of finding the best way to solve traffic congestion. According to data from Texas A&M, commuters in America’s largest cities lose 84 hours per year, on average, to congestion. In sprawling cities like Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., the problem is particularly egregious, with drivers losing more than two hours per day to slow-moving traffic. [1]

In the past, planners would have turned to the obvious but unreliable solution of expanding highways and adding lanes to address this problem. However, as that approach has often been shown to make congestion worse, planners are now expanding their array of potential solutions. Chief among them, in many cases, is congestion pricing.

This method of addressing traffic congestion pushes more of the cost of maintaining the busiest roadways onto those who use them. Ultimately, it aims to reduce traffic and speed up the commute for those who lack other options. Congestion charges can be an effective way to reduce congestion and support other transportation and public health goals, but it’s worth analyzing other solutions to determine the best route for your city and to make sure you can make a compelling case for any pricing strategy.

In this article, we’ll explore the following:

The critical issue of traffic congestion
What is congestion pricing?
Perks and drawbacks of a price-based approach
Other options to consider
How to know if congestion pricing is right for your city

The Critical Issue of Traffic Congestion

For many U.S. drivers, unmitigated traffic congestion may just seem like an irritating fact of life. However, its economic implications are far more serious, and its environmental consequences much more dire than a mere daily nuisance.

In cities with some of the worst congestion, the daily lurch of traffic amounts to billions of dollars in annual losses. From the expense of wasted fuel to the cost of increased accidents, congestion takes a severe economic toll. In high-traffic cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, these costs range from $7.6 billion to $11 billion every year. [2]

The price may be even greater when it comes to pollution and its adverse health effects. For instance, research has shown a direct correlation between traffic volume and the concentration of nitrogen oxides and other pollutants. Regular exposure to these high concentrations during daily rush hour traffic has been associated with increased risks of health problems and even death. [3]

The rise in pollution in conjunction with congestion isn’t merely a function of a higher number of cars. Studies have shown that slower-moving, stop-and-go vehicles produce higher levels of pollutants, exacerbating poor air quality for those who sit in traffic every day or who live and work near congested highways — people who are often members of already disadvantaged communities. [4]

Such immediate costs and public health concerns make traffic congestion a top concern for transport planners in America’s most populated areas.

What Is Congestion Pricing?

Congestion pricing is an increasingly popular way to address traffic problems in busy areas. This approach can take various forms, but they all work in basically the same way — they charge drivers to use busy roadways. This is designed to encourage drivers to carpool or consider alternate routes or methods of transportation.

These tollways may operate at all times or only during certain high-traffic periods. They may apply to all drivers on a specific route or, for instance, only to those using high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes without meeting the occupancy requirements. Others may apply road pricing to those who use express lanes to bypass busy corridors. Whatever the specifics, the idea is to apply a “congestion tax” to those who contribute to the clogging, rather than levying a road or fuel tax against all drivers in a given region. [5]

Perks and Drawbacks of a Price-Based Approach

Are congestion fees the best way to address the problem? That depends on several factors, which we’ll detail below.

Proven Benefits

In the right context, congestion charges bring several important benefits, from reducing traffic to supporting broader transportation initiatives.

Congestion Fees Are Effective at Reducing Traffic

In many cities that have implemented congestion pricing, the effect on traffic volume has been dramatic. In Orange County, California, the tactic doubled vehicle throughput while increasing speed in free lanes three- to fourfold. [5] When London instituted road pricing two decades ago, it reduced congestion by 30%. [6] Stockholm, which introduced its congestion tax a few years after London, saw a net drop in traffic of 20%. [7]

But achieving these outcomes requires a detailed analysis to ensure it will be implemented effectively.

Road Pricing Has Health Benefits

As expected, these drops in traffic are accompanied by reductions in pollution. During the first year of London’s congestion pricing program, the city saw nitrogen oxide emissions drop by 13.5% and particulate matter in the air diminish by 15.5%. Research estimates this has added nearly 1,900 years to the lives of London residents over the course of the program. In Stockholm, meanwhile, hospital visits for childhood asthma have dropped by nearly 50%. [8]

It Supports Other Transportation Goals

Congestion pricing can also be introduced in conjunction with other forms of traffic engineering to support a comprehensive strategy for reducing traffic in overloaded areas. London’s system shifted 10% of commuters toward walking, cycling, or relying on public transportation. In the city center, bus travel increased by a third. [6]

Cities can use the revenue generated by congestion fees to directly support other transportation initiatives, whether that involves renovating bus stops, adding bike lanes, or supporting forms of micromobility. While congestion pricing programs do bring their own expenses, even a small boost in revenue from these programs can be beneficial for cash-strapped planning departments. Again, it’s essential to delve into traffic data and project the impact of any changes before implementing any specific program.

Criticisms and Limitations

Despite these benefits, congestion pricing garners its fair share of criticism, most of which falls into one of three categories.

Get the data-driven congestion solutions used by other cities

The Model Is Unfair

Many critics have raised legitimate concerns over where congestion pricing can be implemented equitably. After all, drivers with lower incomes will find the tolls more difficult to manage than those with more resources.

However, it’s important to note that many models are structured to address these potential inequities. San Francisco’s proposed pricing model, for example, would offer a sliding scale for congestion charges based on income level or disabilities. Likewise, the proposal offers to put some of the revenue from fees toward boosting transit service to underserved locations and even offering free transit to low-income riders. [9]

Congestion Pricing Is Unconstitutional

In some cases, opponents of this type of traffic engineering have gone so far as to question its legality. New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is now facing a lawsuit from New Jersey claiming that its current plan for congestion pricing violates the U.S. Constitution, which doesn’t allow states to enact laws that may place undue burdens on interstate commerce. [10] It’s not clear whether the suit will stand up in court, but it’s safe to say there is precedent for states enacting tollways, even where it affects out-of-state residents.

Other Options to Consider

Where there are significant barriers to successful implementation, it’s worth exploring alternatives that can be deployed in conjunction with (or as an alternative to) congestion pricing.

Road Diets

Road diets take a counterintuitive approach to solving congestion issues, but they can be quite effective. Instead of adding lanes, this method seeks to remove or repurpose existing lanes to slow down traffic, reduce demand, and increase safety.

For instance, Santa Monica, California, was able to reduce crashes by 65% in one corridor simply by converting a four-lane road into three lanes with a shared left-turn lane and outer bike lanes. [11]

Adjusting Traffic Flow

Planners can also look for ways to modify the existing flow of traffic in busy corridors. For instance, this might involve rerouting trucks to free up space or making more proactive plans for when and where roadwork is done. Signal timing adjustments can be particularly helpful in this regard.

However, as city planners found in Temecula, California, this often requires extensive data on turning movement counts (TMC) for various intersections. Fortunately, that’s no problem with the right tools on hand.

Multimodal Transportation

Finally, planners should also consider how they can facilitate more diverse forms of transportation. This is especially necessary if they implement congestion pricing, as it’s critical to have alternative modes of transport for people to choose if the tolls are cost prohibitive.

A multimodal transportation approach expands these options by adding more public transit, bike lanes, pedestrian routes, micromobility, and more. In the same vein, Complete Streets policies can help ensure accessibility for non-motorists, and counteract the equity concerns that are often raised by congestion pricing.

How to Know if Congestion Pricing Is Right for Your City

As with any approach to solving congestion problems in your city or region, there is no definitive solution. Before implementing congestion pricing, it’s essential to conduct a deep analysis of traffic data in congested areas so you can project how any proposed adjustments might affect the flow of traffic.

StreetLight InSight® makes such a deep analysis possible by providing traffic data from virtually every angle. In Napa Valley, data on commute origins helped planners realize that focusing on public transportation could significantly reduce congestion. In Temecula, TMC metrics facilitated a revamp of signal timing. In Atlanta, data on driver demographics and rush hour volume is shedding light on whether congestion fees will improve traffic flow.

To learn how you can use data to determine the right congestion solutions for your city, download Everything But Highway Expansion: Better Data for Faster Congestion Mitigation.

Or, watch how quickly you can analyze local congestion with StreetLight’s Congestion Management solutions in the 3-minute demo below.

Texas A&M Transportation Institute. “2021 Urban Mobility Report.” https://static.tti.tamu.edu/tti.tamu.edu/documents/mobility-report-2021.pdf
Forbes. “Traffic Congestion Costs U.S. Cities Billions Of Dollars Every Year [Infographic].” https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2020/03/10/traffic-congestion-costs-us-cities-billions-of-dollars-every-year-infographic/?sh=3af966ea4ff8
National Library of Medicine. “Air pollution and health risks due to vehicle traffic.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4243514/
Research Journal of Chemistry and Environment. “Urban traffic congestion: its causes-consequences-mitigation.” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/367208770_Urban_traffic_congestion_its_causes-consequences-mitigation
U.S. Federal Highway Administration. “What Is Congestion Pricing?” https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/congestionpricing/cp_what_is.htm
Transport for London. “Congestion Charge marks 20 years of keeping London moving sustainably.” https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2023/february/congestion-charge-marks-20-years-of-keeping-london-moving-sustainably
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Downtown congestion pricing in practice.” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331152719_Downtown_congestion_pricing_in_practice
Natural Resources Defense Council. “What is congestion pricing?” https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-is-congestion-pricing
San Francisco County Transportation Authority. “Downtown Congestion Pricing.” https://www.sfcta.org/downtown
Bloomberg. “NY Congestion Pricing Plan Violates US Constitution, NJ Governor Says.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-16/ny-congestion-pricing-plan-violates-us-constitution-murphy-says
Federal Highway Administration, Road Diet Case Studies. “Santa Monica, California – Ocean Park Boulevard: Road Diet Improves Safety Near School.” https://highways.dot.gov/safety/other/road-diets/road-diet-case-studies/santa-monica-california-ocean-park-boulevard

See the data behind better traffic flow WITHOUT adding lanes

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What Is a Vulnerable Road User?

As the transportation industry grapples with the deadly impacts of vehicle-centric infrastructure, new requirements could shift focus onto road users outside the vehicle — vulnerable road users. But what is a vulnerable road user, and can this safety classification actually help agencies save lives?

vulnerable road user blog header with cyclist crossing road

When it comes to road safety outcomes, it’s no surprise that some road users are more vulnerable than others. While drivers are protected by vehicle safety standards and road design that is tailored to their mode of travel, those who walk, bike, or use other forms of transportation often face dangerous roadway conditions, contributing to record high fatality rates for cyclists and pedestrians, even though walking activity is down nationwide. [1]

This safety disparity is nothing new, nor is the term “vulnerable road user,” but up until recently, much of the emphasis on road safety was placed on vehicle safety standards and making roads safe for drivers. Now, transportation professionals are beginning to pay special attention to vulnerable road users as they seek to create safer mobility systems for those outside vehicles.

In a move that underscores the growing attention toward Vulnerable Road Users (VRU), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on February 21, 2024 proposed a change to the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) regulations, which would require each state to perform a vulnerable road user safety assessment as part of their Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). And some states, such as West Virginia, have already created Vulnerable Road User risk assessment tools to predict where VRU-related crashes are most likely to occur.

So what exactly is a vulnerable road user, and how can we make them less vulnerable? In this article, we’ll discuss:

What are vulnerable road users?
What is a vulnerable road user safety assessment?
How to make streets safer for vulnerable road users
Data to support vulnerable road users

What Is a Vulnerable Road User?

The National Safety Council (NSC) broadly defines a Vulnerable Road User as anyone not protected by an outside shield (such as the body of a car) while on the road. [2] This definition highlights the increased risk of injury and death road users face in collisions when they are not protected by a vehicle or other “shield.”

More narrowly, the term Vulnerable Road User is typically used to refer to pedestrians and cyclists, but may also apply to motorcyclists, road workers (who are also considered pedestrians), and other road users not inside a vehicle such as a car, truck, or bus.

This classification isn’t merely conceptual. According to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), VRUs account for a growing and disproportionate share of all traffic fatalities in the U.S., increasing by roughly 1% between 2017 and 2021. [3] This increase happened even while the number of average daily walking trips declined by 36% nationwide between 2019 and 2022, based on StreetLight’s data, underscoring just how dangerous U.S. roadways are for nonmotorists.

cyclists and pedestrians on a shared use path

What Is a Vulnerable Road User Safety Assessment?

A Vulnerable Road User Safety Assessment is a study conducted by a transportation agency — usually a state DOT — to measure safety performance with respect to vulnerable road users. Chiefly, it quantifies fatality and injury rates for VRUs and compares this to overall fatality and injury rates. [4]

A Vulnerable Road User Safety Assessment also requires agencies to identify a set of projects and strategies aimed at mitigating the safety risks faced by vulnerable road users, which could include adding bike and pedestrian infrastructure or reducing speed limits on high-risk roadways. We’ll explore potential safety improvements for vulnerable road users in more detail below.

How to Make Streets Safer for Vulnerable Road Users

To make streets safer for VRUs, it is necessary to go beyond the car-centric paradigm that dominates transportation in the U.S. and build people-first transportation networks that support safe access to all modes of travel.

There are many ways to work toward this paradigm shift and ensure safer streets for all road users, but policy and infrastructure improvements are critical to address the systematic dangers of our transportation networks that make road users vulnerable in the first place.

A Complete Streets policy can encourage planners to identify and address infrastructure gaps that not only impact Vulnerable Road Users, but other groups that face dangerous disadvantages on the road, such as people with disabilities.

Safe Infrastructure for Pedestrians and Cyclists

Safer road infrastructure can take many forms, but a multimodal focus is essential to make streets safer for Vulnerable Road Users. Pedestrian and cycling infrastructure are obvious starting points, since Vulnerable Road Users are primarily walkers and bikers.

Some common infrastructure improvements proven to make streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians include:

Pedestrian islands, widened sidewalks, and bulb-outs
Protected bike lanes, bikeways, and shared-use paths
Signalized crosswalks
Daylighting
Reduced speed limits
Traffic signal retiming
Lane narrowing and lane reductions

For example, in the video below, transportation professionals from Pittsburgh explain how they rebuilt Fern Hollow Bridge to be safer for walkers and bikers after its headline-making collapse in 2022. They did this by adding the city’s first jersey barrier protected bike lanes, lowering the speed limit, and simplifying a complex intersection where drivers were taking risky turns that endangered Vulnerable Road Users.

Similarly, when North Kansas City, Missouri installed a new protected bike lane on Armour Road — a principal thoroughfare running through the city’s downtown and adjacent commercial area — a before-and-after analysis confirmed that the new bike lane boosted bike ridership and reduced vehicle speeds without causing congestion, leading to a safer corridor for Vulnerable Road Users.

Traffic calming measures such as road diets and reduced speed limits can also help address one of the primary factors leading to serious injury and death for Vulnerable Road Users: dangerous vehicle speeds. When ranking speed conditions for the top 30 most populated U.S. metro areas, StreetLight found that among the bottom 25 (those with the most dangerous speeds), 33% of roadways have average vehicle speeds above 35 mph. At these speeds, pedestrians are roughly five times more likely to die from collisions, according to data from the AAA Foundation.

Armour Road with traffic calming measures — *Safety improvements on Armour Rd, North Kansas City including a protected bike lane and painted crosswalk improved safety for Vulnerable Road Users.*

Safe Infrastructure for Other Vulnerable Road Users

The unique needs of motorcyclists and riders of other powered two- and three-wheel vehicles such as mopeds, e-bikes, and e-scooters often get overlooked, even in the context of Vulnerable Road User initiatives.

In fact, some definitions of Vulnerable Road User specifically exclude motorcyclists, such as that put forth by the FHWA in the Vulnerable Road User Safety Assessment Guidance Memorandum issued in October 2022. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes motorcyclists as VRUs and offers guidance on how to design safer roads for motorcycles. [5]

Safety programs for these road users have typically focused on education and training around defensive driving and the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) like helmets.

But infrastructure is also key to improving safety for these road users. The WHO identifies road design elements such as lane and shoulder width, surface friction, curve type and radius, sight distances, lighting, and turning provisions, including signal phasing at intersections to have significant impact on the severity of motorcycle crashes. Put simply, whenever road design compromises the stability of a motorcycle (such as on sharp curves) or the visibility of motorcyclists (such as poor sight distances or lighting conditions), the risk of severe crashes increases.

motorcycle navigating a turn with no roadside barriers

Exclusive motorcycle lanes have been proven to improve motorcyclist safety, while protected turn lanes, traffic calming measures, and road surface treatments to increase friction are also identified by the WHO as promising countermeasures to reduce crash rates and crash severity for this group.

Other studies also identify the design of guardrails and other roadside barriers, especially along curves, as particularly impactful to motorcycle safety. Motorcyclists account for a disproportionate number of vehicle-guardrail fatalities in the U.S., but there is some evidence that when existing guardrails are retrofitted with a barrier rail below the main guardrail, this can prevent motorcyclists from hitting the supporting poles of a guardrail, making these impacts less fatal. [6]

See how dangerous traffic speeds impact walking and biking in your region

Data to Support Vulnerable Road Users

Traditional data collection methods like physical roadway sensors and surveys often do not collect data on Vulnerable Road Users, leaving data gaps that can make it difficult to diagnose and address safety issues for VRUs, measure the impact of past infrastructure changes, or even incorporate vulnerable road users into the planning process. While manual counts and surveys directed specifically at pedestrians and cyclists can help fill these gaps, they can also be costly, time-consuming, and subject to bias and sample size issues while also putting agency staff at risk while they are stationed along busy roadways.

Transportation analytics using a big data approach can often offer a more comprehensive and granular view of VRU activity on roadways, while also providing insights into vehicle speed, volumes, and other factors impacting VRU safety.To diagnose dangerous roadway conditions Vulnerable Road Users face in your region, the following metrics can be helpful:

Vehicle Speeds – to understand where unsafe speeds put VRUs at the highest risk of fatal crashes
Active Transportation Activity – to map and measure VRU exposure and prioritize corridor improvements
Vehicle Volumes – to further contextualize VRU exposure and understand how potential road design changes may impact capacity and congestion
Turning Movement Counts – to understand safety conditions at intersections, where most collisions occur

Before-and-after analyses of each of these metrics can also help evaluate the success of past projects, justify funding requests, and gain public or political support for future improvements.

For example, a StreetLight analysis of Oakland’s Grand Avenue used data on vehicle speeds, pedestrian activity, and routing patterns to show that a road diet could help improve safety on this corridor without causing congestion.

In Pittsburgh, analysts also overlaid bike and pedestrian activity onto crash data to understand the factors that lead to crash severity and prioritize equitable safety improvements throughout the city.

The video below provides a helpful introduction to how agencies can use these sorts of analyses to diagnose dangerous conditions and prioritize safety investments.

For a comprehensive guide to transportation safety analytics, download our Practitioner’s Guide to Transportation Safety.

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, “Fatality Facts 2021, Pedestrians.” May 2023. https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/pedestrians
National Safety Council. “Position/Policy Statement, Vulnerable Road Users.” https://nsc.org/getattachment/d5babee6-582d-4e66-804f-8d06f9b021a4/t-vulnerable-road-users-147
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “National Statistics.” https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx
Federal Highway Administration. “Vulnerable Road User Safety Assessment Guidance.” https://highways.dot.gov/safety/hsip/vru-safety-assessment-guidance
World Health Organization. Powered two-and three-wheeler safety: a road safety manual for decision-makers and practitioners. 9 October 2022. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240060562
Georgene M. Geary, Infrastructure Measures to Protect the Unrecognized Vulnerable Road User: Motorcyclists. Eng. Proc. 2023, 36, 36. https://doi.org/10.3390/engproc2023036036

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What Is a Road Diet? The Data Behind How They Work and How To Implement Them

By removing or repurposing one or more lanes of traffic, road diets promote positive mobility outcomes from improved safety to reduced emissions. But despite proven success, some find the approach controversial.

What is a Road Diet header image - two-lane street with bike lanes

Since the 90s, road diets have become a popular tactic to calm traffic and implement multimodal transportation options. But planners and advocates often face resistance from those who are worried that fewer lanes will lead to more congestion.

A road diet reconfigures an existing roadway by removing or repurposing lanes devoted to vehicle traffic. The overall impact is typically fewer cars on the road and reduced travel speeds, often for the relatively low cost of restriping.

The most traditional version of a road diet reduces the total number of lanes on a roadway by converting one or more lanes into a central turn lane that both traffic directions can use to make left turns.

VDOT road diet example — *Photo source: Virginia DOT, reprinted in the U.S. DOT’s Road Diet Informational Guide*

Other types of road diets might convert one or more existing lanes into bike lanes, bus-only lanes, medians, sidewalks, or landscaping.

And in spite of the concerns often raised by public and political stakeholders, road diets have stood the test of time. According to the FHWA, they have been in use for more than three decades, with one of the first installations dating back to 1979 in Billings, Montana. Since then, they’ve improved safety and mobility outcomes for roads in Charlotte, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and many other cities across the U.S. [1]

Road diets have been gaining more attention since the pandemic as biking activity increased. Simultaneously, speeds have also increased, creating dangerous conditions for those in vehicles as well as those on foot or bike. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there were over 6,000 pedestrian fatalities in 2020, a 3.9% increase from 2019, while pedestrian injuries rose 28% from 2019 to 2020. [2]

Meanwhile, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) has put a special focus on safety infrastructure, establishing grant programs like Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A). The U.S DOT webpage on the SS4A grant program lists road diets under their examples of eligible low-cost safety treatments for Implementation Grant funding. [3]

But why do road diets work, and what makes them a popular tactic for many DOTs, MPOs, and other public agencies? In this post, we’ll cover:

Take action on unsafe streets with speed data, bike/ped metrics, and more

How Does a Road Diet Improve Safety?

Speed is among the primary factors in road safety, with higher speeds leading to more severe crashes. That’s one reason why road diets are so effective in improving safety for all road users.

With multiple lanes in each direction of travel, drivers are quick to speed up and pass other vehicles, hoping to get to where they’re going as quickly as possible. Adding to the problem, roads with little to no multimodal infrastructure signal to drivers that there is no need to slow down for more vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists, or road workers.

According to the FHWA,

Four-lane undivided highways experience relatively high crash frequencies — especially as traffic volumes and turning movements increase over time — resulting in conflicts between high-speed through traffic, left-turning vehicles and other road users. FHWA has deemed Road Diets a proven safety countermeasure and promotes them as a safety-focused design alternative to a traditional four-lane, undivided roadway. [4]

In fact, FHWA studies of road diet projects have found that reducing the number of lanes dedicated to cars reduces crashes by 19 to 52% due to reduced speeds and fewer opportunities for collisions. [5]

When a road diet repurposes the existing space for multimodal or more accessible infrastructure such as widened sidewalks, bike or bus lanes, or pedestrian safety islands, they also use Complete Streets principles to make the roadway safer for all road users, regardless of their mode of travel.

The overall effect of reducing vehicle lanes and reclaiming space for non-vehicle modes is traffic calming. By encouraging slower driving and less vehicle throughput, road diets reduce exposure for Vulnerable Road Users and lessen the severity of crashes that do occur.

How Does a Road Diet Reduce Vehicle Traffic?

People often worry that removing lanes will just make driving more miserable. After all, fewer lanes means less road capacity for cars, creating bottlenecks where traffic could once flow freely. At least, that’s the concern.

But in reality, road diets rarely lead to increased congestion. There are a few reasons why.

The first has to do with reduced demand. You may have heard that increasing the number of lanes on a highway often has the paradoxical effect of increasing congestion. That’s because adding lanes induces demand, leading more people to choose to drive on that roadway. By the same token, removing lanes actually reduces demand. But where do those travelers go?

Some traffic may reroute to nearby roadways while other drivers may choose to travel via other modes. After all, with fewer cars and lower travel speeds, the road is now safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Especially so if the lanes have been repurposed for multimode infrastructure like bike lanes or sidewalks. Likewise, a road diet might repurpose an existing lane for bus-only traffic, incentivizing more travelers to use public transit options that reduce the number of vehicles on the road.

In one road diet example on Ocean Park Blvd in Santa Monica, California, the city restriped 4 lanes of roadway into 3 lanes including a central left turn lane, plus added bike lanes in both directions. While there was public concern that traffic would reroute to nearby roadways like the I-10, a study of traffic counts showed volumes on nearby roadways remained relatively stable. Meanwhile, there was a 65% reduction in crashes after the road diet was implemented. [6]

a bus-only lane on an urban road — *A bus-only lane incentivizes more travelers to choose public transit in NYC.*

How Does a Road Diet Cut GHG Emissions?

By reducing the number of cars on the road, road diets also reduce overall Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), leading to local reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The potential for a road diet to reduce emissions is enhanced when lanes are repurposed for multimodal infrastructure that encourages climate-friendly travel options like walking, biking, and public transit.

Plus, when road diets are used as a traffic calming measure — i.e., to reduce overall traffic speeds — they may also reduce fuel consumption and thereby reduce emissions. This is because cars are less fuel efficient and produce more CO2 per mile traveled when traveling at higher speeds.

For example, in the video below, the Southern Maine Planning & Development Commission explains how they used VMT and Origin-Destination analyses in StreetLight InSight® to measure local GHG emissions. What they learned helped them plan regional reduction strategies, including multimodal infrastructure that would reduce VMT.

Real Road Diet Examples and the Data Behind Their Success

To plan an effective road diet, you first need to get the full picture on travel behaviors. Traditional data collection methods like sensors and surveys can help planners measure existing conditions like roadway volumes, travel speeds, and turning movements.

But many roads lack permanent sensors, and temporary sensors and manual counts only get a snapshot of roadway conditions, so planners may miss how conditions change over the course of the day, week, or year. Likewise, surveys suffer from low sample sizes and can be expensive and time-consuming.

Pairing traditional data collection methods with on-demand transportation analytics gathered through connected vehicles and the Internet of Things can help fill data gaps to not only plan new road diets but also evaluate the success of existing road diets, offering historical data for before-and-after studies.

For example, in the video below, Maine DOT explains how they used StreetLight’s traffic data including Turning Movement Counts, Origin-Destination analyses, and roadway volume in their modeling efforts to help evaluate safety and mobility outcomes for a proposed road diet on Bangor Street that would reduce traffic to one lane in each direction.To find good candidates for road diets, Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) and Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) can be used to identify high-volume roadways and segments where road diets may be the most impactful.

Pairing these insights with travel speeds, crash reports, and pedestrian and cyclist activity is a crucial next step to illuminate where volume is high and safety is low, revealing high-priority locations for potential road diets that could save lives.

Turning Movement Counts (TMC) at intersections along a corridor can also help determine whether a traditional road diet (turning existing lanes into a center, two-way left-turn lane) may ease traffic flow.

To understand how a road diet may impact traffic on nearby roadways, Origin-Destination and Top Routes analyses can help pinpoint where cars and trucks may reroute, giving planners the opportunity to ensure sufficient capacity on nearby roads, especially if the road diet does not include plans to add multimodal infrastructure.

To evaluate the impact of a road diet, before-and-after studies measuring changes in overall roadway volumes, safety outcomes, and congestion metrics like Vehicle Hours of Delay (VHD) can help ensure a road diet is achieving its desired outcomes and provide justification for future road diet projects.

Since road diets often face resistance, quantifying the success of past road diets and showing how you will measure traffic impact can help answer constituent concerns around travel time impact.

For example, in 2019, Armour Road in North Kansas City, Missouri underwent a series of improvements, including the addition of a new protected bike lane and pedestrian refuges. A before-and-after study by StreetLight shows a significant reduction in dangerous vehicle speeds, double the biking activity, and a negligible increase in travel times (around five seconds on average) along the corridor.

Metrics to Measure Traffic Volume and Roadway Capacity

– AADT, VMT

To find good candidates for road diets, Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) and Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) can be used to identify high-volume roadways and segments where road diets may be the most impactful.

Metrics to Diagnose Road Safety Risks

– Travel speeds, crash rates, pedestrian & cyclist activity

Pairing traffic volume insights with travel speeds, crash reports, and pedestrian and cyclist activity is a crucial next step to illuminate where volume is high and safety is low, revealing high-priority locations for potential road diets that could save lives.

Metrics for Planning Road Diet Implementation

– TMC, O-D, Top Routes

Metrics to Measure Road Diet Success

– Changes in VHD, AADT, VMT, travel speeds, crash rates, O-D, Top Routes, bike and pedestrian activity, and more

To evaluate the impact of a road diet, before-and-after studies measuring changes in overall roadway volumes, traffic routing, safety outcomes, and congestion metrics like Vehicle Hours of Delay (VHD) can help ensure a road diet is achieving its desired outcomes and provide justification for future road diet projects.

Since road diets often face resistance, quantifying the success of past road diets and showing how you will measure traffic impact can help answer constituent concerns.

When road diet proposals spark public outcry, congestion and travel time are typically peak concerns, but residents may also cite safety concerns like increased emergency response times or economic impacts on nearby businesses due to reduced traffic and parking availability. In these cases, analyzing multimodal activity that could boost visits to businesses and nearby road capacity that can accommodate emergency services rerouting could also help assuage concerns.

armour road travel speed data after road diet — A visualization from StreetLight InSight® of average speed on Armour Road in the 2021 study period shows how the bike lane curtailed speeding. There are very few instances of vehicles traveling above 40 mph (shown in green) when that proportion was much higher before, about one in every 20 trips.

To learn more about how on-demand transportation data can enhance safety planning, download our free Safety Data Handbook.

U.S. DOT Federal Highway Administration. “Road Diets (Roadway Reconfiguration).” October 25, 2022.
NHTSA. National Pedestrian Safety Month 2022 Resource Guide. October 2022.
U.S. DOT, “Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Grant Program.” April 26, 2023.
U.S. DOT Federal Highway Administration. “Road Diets (Roadway Reconfiguration).” October 25, 2022.
Andrew Keatts, Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research. “What Are ‘Road Diets,’ and Why Are They Controversial?” September 10, 2015.
Federal Highway Administration, Road Diet Case Studies. “Santa Monica, California – Ocean Park Boulevard: Road Diet Improves Safety Near School.”

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What’s the Quickest Way to Solve a City’s Traffic Congestion?

What's the Quickest Way to Solve a City's Traffic Congestion?

Traffic congestion is one of the most persistent problems facing modern drivers. According to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, the typical U.S. driver loses 54 hours a year (about an hour each week) to congestion. This costs the average commuter over $1,100 annually. [1]

These losses, along with safety concerns associated with increasing urban congestion, make finding solutions for traffic congestion a critical task for transportation planners and community stakeholders. As populations grow and commute distances increase, the problem only promises to grow worse without intervention.

Once you begin to dig into the causes of traffic congestion, however, it quickly becomes clear that this is a complex issue. Although adding lanes to roadways has often been treated as a silver bullet to address limited capacity, this has often been shown to compound existing congestion in the long term by inducing demand. In reality, there’s no quick fix for overcrowded urban roadways, and effective congestion reduction often requires a multi-pronged approach. Nonetheless, when planners and agencies can analyze a range of data and uncover the real causes of congestion in their area, they can pave the way for more free-flowing and safer roads.

Below, we’ll explore this challenge in detail, covering:

What can cause city traffic congestion?
Narrowing down causes case by case
Traffic congestion solutions
Fixing traffic congestion problems with a multi-pronged approach
Undoing urban congestion with big data

What Can Cause City Traffic Congestion?

Finding adequate traffic congestion solutions first requires a thorough understanding of the potential causes involved in any given region, and these vary by the type of area — urban or rural. For a broad overview of these contributing factors, planners often refer to the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHA) “sources of congestion” estimates, which break down the primary causes for urban and rural areas as follows: [2], [3]

These are national averages, and the specifics vary significantly from one urban or rural area to another. The Texas A&M Transportation Institute has conducted extensive research on traffic congestion causes in several urban areas, and the data shows that the prevalence of specific causes can be quite different even within the same region. For example, roadwork is responsible for 26% of urban traffic congestion incidents in Pittsburgh’s 11th District, but only 17% of incidents in Philadelphia’s Sixth District. [2]

Moreover, focusing only on these categories would severely limit our understanding. Traffic congestion is exacerbated by uniquely 21st-century issues, some of which aren’t yet reflected in the FHA data. For instance, research points to six additional factors that contribute to congestion:

Economic expansion
Demographic changes and urbanization
Transportation disruption from ride hailing and Transportation Network Companies
E-commerce and on-demand delivery
Insufficient infrastructure investment
Mixed effectiveness of current congestion solutions [4]

Given that each of these factors is multifaceted in its own right, it’s safe to say that congestion is a complex problem requiring a diverse array of solutions.

The Consequences of Congestion

If the causes of congestion are difficult to sort out, its consequences are even more so. Some results are more obvious than others. As previously noted, it’s easy enough to extrapolate the costs of congestion on an individual level. When U.S. drivers spend about an hour each week dealing with traffic jam problems or other slowdowns, the costs add up in terms of time and fuel.

Even more troublesome is the connection between congestion and accidents. Research results vary, and the exact relationship between the two isn’t entirely clear. However, the best data seems to support a bell-shaped curve, where accidents occur most frequently in low-traffic and high-traffic situations. The former is likely due to higher speeds on open roadways, while the latter is likely related to the volume of traffic. [5]

More research is needed to better explain these connections, but it’s clear that congestion and accident volume are related, making congestion not merely an issue of cost and convenience but also road safety.

Narrowing Down Causes Case by Case

To gain a more precise understanding of the causes and consequences of traffic congestion, planners and other stakeholders need a clearer picture of what’s happening on the roadways in their regions. No two regions are the same, and finding unique solutions requires a granular analysis of how each factor is shaping outcomes in a particular area.

The Role of Data

Leveraging data allows planners to get to the underlying issues creating traffic congestion. It encourages a deeper exploration of potential causes, such as:

Sources and destinations of traffic
Participants in the traffic jam and their reasons for being on the road
Daily and weekly time trends
Alternative routes or transportation options

Armed with tools for collecting traffic data, planners can find more precise reasons for congestion — and plan better solutions to the problem. Only with detailed analysis can the discussion move from generalities to actionable specifics and avoid falling back on tired, ineffective traffic congestion solutions.

time lapse of super bowl traffic congestion — *A time lapse showing traffic congestion near Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, NV during the 2024 Super Bowl. Higher volumes appear in red, while lower volumes are in blue.*

What Doesn’t Work to Decrease Congestion?

Historically, urban planners resorted to a one-size-fits-all solution for traffic congestion: Add more lanes. It seems obvious — more space for cars should lead to less cramped corridors, right?

Ultimately, the answer is no. Adding lanes has often been shown to induce even greater demand, inviting more traffic in the long run. Rather than targeting what’s pushing traffic into the area, this approach makes room for even more drivers to flood the congested space. Without a more obvious alternative, drivers will simply gravitate toward the expanded roadway.

Additionally, expansion is expensive  — $15 million per lane on average as recently as 2014, according to the Highway Economic Requirements System. Lane construction also causes additional congestion, resulting in significant delays during the project. Ultimately, this approach falls short of addressing larger concerns of public health, safety, and equity, because it fails to ask deeper questions about why heavy traffic is present to begin with.

Solve congestion WITHOUT highway expansion

Traffic Congestion Solutions

When they’re able to conduct a robust analysis, planners often find that the answers are entirely different than what they anticipated. While there are many potential courses of action, data points to five particularly effective solutions for urban congestion.

Improving Traffic Flow

There are numerous ways to improve traffic flow, and the right options depend on the nature of the congestion problem at hand. The Texas A&M Transportation Institute provides several solutions, including intersection improvements, loop ramps to reduce left turns, and designated lanes for high-occupancy vehicles or public transit. [6]

The key to choosing the best option is to explore traffic data to find out where the bottlenecks are coming from. For example, planners in Shreveport, Louisiana, were able to leverage data to find precise solutions to congestion problems in their region. By closely examining 158 miles over six corridors, they determined where the greatest speed reductions were occurring and pinpointed six miles with severe congestion. This information led them to tangible solutions, such as intersection signage, highway on-ramp signaling, and expanded capacity in select corridors.

Road Diets

Another highly effective way to manage traffic congestion is to implement what are known as “road diets.” This is the opposite approach from adding lanes — instead, it reduces available driving lanes in favor of center turn lanes, bike lanes, bus lanes, landscaping, or other uses.

While this may seem counterintuitive, road diets have been shown to reduce traffic and accidents when properly implemented. To find good candidate corridors and choose the right solution, city planners must examine key metrics such as Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT), Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), and Turning Movement Counts (TMC), in addition to measurements of pedestrian and bicycle activity. By understanding the exact nature of area traffic flows,  planners gain invaluable insights into what road diet approach would be most effective.

Travel Demand Management

In many cases, the ideal way to address traffic jam problems is to reduce car travel demand in the affected area and increase the use of other methods such as public transit or cycling (this is part of why road diets that add infrastructure for cyclists, pedestrians, or transit can be effective congestion mitigation tactics). This approach examines the sources of traffic and readily available alternatives that may redirect, reduce, or replace it.

One region, in particular, provides a pointed case study for this solution. Napa Valley planners were surprised when traffic data revealed that congestion was a result not of tourists and pass-through commuters, but of employees driving into the area for work. This information transformed their approach to congestion mitigation, directing them to focus on optimizing bus routes and building affordable housing for workers to move to the area.

Congestion Pricing

Congestion pricing involves the use of tollways to discourage some drivers from using certain roadways. An effective — albeit controversial — option for solving traffic problems, tollways transfer more of the responsibility to those who use the roadways. It invites them to consider whether the convenience of the route is worth the extra cost. Unlike fuel taxes, which penalize all drivers indiscriminately, tollway pricing charges drivers for the miles they drive in highly congested areas. Similarly, high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes can charge vehicles with low occupancy to use them while allowing HOVs to pass free of charge.

Before implementing congestion pricing, deep data analysis is required. Planners should evaluate area demographics, traffic sources and destinations, public transit options, and more. When done correctly, such a program can reap big rewards for the region. After implementing a form of congestion pricing (and making other improvements) along IH-10 and IH-110, Los Angeles saw bus ridership increase between 27% and 37% in those areas, reducing the proportionate number of cars on the road.7

Expanded Transportation Options

Transportation planners must also think more broadly about the transportation options in their region. Multimodal transportation, for instance, is a critical solution for traffic congestion issues. This focuses planning efforts not merely on reducing traffic, but on creating and expanding alternative options for transportation. It emphasizes people over cars by adding measures like more bike lanes, pedestrian corridors, and forms of micromobility such as e-bikes and scooters.

Planners in Northern Virginia found that traffic data pointed them toward precisely this solution to their congestion conundrum. They analyzed the numbers to discover corridors with the highest proportion of short trips. This allowed them to focus on improving bicycle and pedestrian routes, expanding bike-sharing options, and adding more shuttles, eliminating as many as 3.8 million vehicle trips annually.

Public transportation is another facet of multimodal mobility, and it’s a congestion solution in its own right. Investment in public transit involves more than merely adding more buses or increasing the number of light rail trains, however. Creative solutions can involve adding more bus lanes or adjusting bus schedules to better match commute schedules and encourage more ridership.

bus and cyclist in multimodal non-vehicle lane

Fixing Traffic Congestion Problems With a Multi-Pronged Approach

Addressing traffic congestion requires a careful, nuanced approach to the problem. As you can see from just a few examples, the causes of congestion are as diverse as the regions that deal with it. Solutions must be tailored to specific causes to truly be effective.

In most cases, this will require a multi-pronged approach rather than a single solution. Like the planners in Napa, Shreveport, and Northern Virginia, you may find that your city’s busiest corridors require a few adjustments to bring congestion down to more manageable levels. Congestion pricing may not work in your area, but perhaps combining road diets with a multimodal approach will do the trick.

What is Traffic Congestion Analysis?

Transportation planners and engineers often gather data existing roadway conditions to identify congested road segments, diagnose the causes of delays, and determine the best solution to improve traffic flow.

Metrics used to measure congestion and evaluate solutions often include:

Vehicle Hours of Delay – to understand where and when traffic delays occur, and how severe they are
Vehicle Speeds – to understand where and when traffic slows to below free-flow conditions
Vehicle Volumes – to determine whether roadway capacity is sufficient to support actual vehicle activity, and where traffic could potentially be rerouted
Turning Movement Counts – to understand how traffic patterns at intersections impact congestion on the nearby road network

Transportation analysts may combine data from physical traffic counters, manual counts, surveys, and big data platforms to create a comprehensive picture of congestion causes and potential solutions.

Undoing Urban Congestion With Big Data

As with any complex issue, there is no quick fix to traffic congestion. But having big data at your fingertips can put congestion mitigation in the fast lane by avoiding the delays and sample size challenges with traditional data collection methods such as manual counts and surveys.

StreetLight’s Congestion Management Quickview, a feature of StreetLight Insight®, is specifically designed to help planners and engineers quickly access detailed data on congestion trends for their region. It enables easy analysis of important metrics like hourly traffic volume and throughput, and you can use it to compare data across different metro areas.

To learn more about how it works, check out this step-by-step walkthrough. And for more info on big data solutions to traffic congestion, check out our Congestion Solutions page.

congestion management quickview gif — *StreetLight subscribers can use the Congestion Management QuickView (pictured above) to see regional congestion trends and investigate congestion on individual corridors.*

Texas A&M Transportation Institute. “2021 Urban Mobility Report.” https://static.tti.tamu.edu/tti.tamu.edu/documents/mobility-report-2021.pdf
Texas A&M Transportation Institute. “Support for Urban Mobility Analysis.” https://static.tti.tamu.edu/tti.tamu.edu/documents/TTI-2021-2.pdf
Federal Highway Administration. “Traffic Congestion and Reliability: Trends and Advanced Strategies for Congestion Mitigation.”  https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/congestion_report/executive_summary.htm
PwC. “Mobility insights: Tackling the growing issue of congestion in urban areas.” https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/industrial-products/library/mobility-insights-tackling-congestion.html
National Library of Medicine. “Current Understanding of the Effects of Congestion on Traffic Accidents.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6766193/
Texas A&M Transportation Institute. “How to Fix Congestion.” https://policy.tti.tamu.edu/congestion/how-to-fix-congestion/
Texas A&M Transportation Institute. “Variable Pricing.” https://static.tti.tamu.edu/tti.tamu.edu/documents/policy/congestion-mitigation/variable-pricing.pdf

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Taylor’s Super Bowl vs. Taylor’s Concert: A Traffic Analysis

It turns out Taylor Swift’s concert at Allegiant caused more traffic than the Super Bowl. We unpack why, look at how Super Bowl traffic trends compare to other recent events, and use near real-time data to visualize exactly how traffic played out at streets around the stadium.

Allegiant Stadium traffic on Super Bowl Sunday 2024

Last weekend’s Super Bowl was the most watched television event in history. At Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, it was also one of the biggest in-person events of the year for the city. The stadium itself has an extended capacity to accommodate over 70,000 game-goers, but that doesn’t account for the tailgaters and partygoers who attended events throughout the city before, during, and after the game.

For event operators and transportation agencies that also means the Super Bowl was one of the biggest traffic bottlenecks of the year. (And that’s without factoring in Taylor Swift’s travel from private jet to stadium arena.)

To understand how traffic trends played out and compare the impact against other recent major events at Allegiant, StreetLight used its Traffic Monitor product, equipped with real-time and historical speed and traffic activity data. Understanding these traffic patterns — which roadways see the most congestion and when — can help event operators study and improve traffic plans for events and construction projects.

In the gif below, you can see a time lapse of Super Bowl traffic around Allegiant Stadium during the 12 hours around the game.

You can see how roadways build up atypical vehicle volumes (shown in gradient from yellow to red) throughout the day, ahead of the game start. But then, the gradient becomes light blue during the game itself, indicating lower than normal vehicle volumes. This is because vehicle volumes on roadways surrounding the stadium actually fell below normal during the game, as people stayed put both at the stadium or at their Super Bowl parties to watch the action. Volumes rise again, well above the pre-game volumes, after the game ends.

This is visible in starker relief in the screenshots below. in the first image, we see atypical volumes at the peak egress vs. the second image, where the roads are clearer than usual during the game.

events traffic volumes at the peak egress hour of the super bowl — *Atypical volumes at the peak egress hour of the Super Bowl.*

event traffic volumes during a low in super bowl traffic — *Atypical volumes during a low in traffic during the Super Bowl.*

Of course, events don’t take place in a vacuum and there may be unforeseen circumstances that further impact congestion. Las Vegas’ Super Bowl traffic offers an example of this as well.

Nearly simultaneous with the end of the Super Bowl and peak egress, a pole fell on the Las Vegas strip within 3 miles of Allegiant Stadium. StreetLight captured the impact of the incident on speeds on nearby roadways in the gif below.

*Change in speeds after a pole falls on the Las Vegas strip.*

The pole incident further contributed to the Super Bowl traffic impact, as congestion moved away from the Stadium and towards post-game events throughout the city.

This is another important consideration for traffic planners and engineers: what will the impact look like should some an additional traffic incident occur, and where are the potential routes and detours that can help disgorge some of those impacts. This is why it is critical to pair near real-time data with historical data to dynamically adjust for typical vs. atypical circumstances.

Event Traffic Trends at Allegiant Stadium

Las Vegas is a town that regularly hosts major marquee national events. But traffic around the stadium still snarls from the impact of attendees. In fact, when StreetLight analyzed Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, it found that Allegiant Stadium saw the greatest vehicle hours of delay of any of the stadiums studied.

To get a high-level view of how congestion and traffic typically operates during events at Allegiant Stadium, StreetLight first measured Vehicle Hours of Delay within one mile of the stadium during peak arrival and peak departure hours at some recent events prior to the Super Bowl.

It’s clear that the timing of the events has a major impact on delays. Delays are much higher in the hour before the event when the event occurs on weekdays, likely because on these days there is higher typical congestion. Otherwise, egress is typically when there is the most concentrated congestion.

Peak Vehicle Hours of Delay on major roads near Super Bowl stadium

In the graphs below, StreetLight further analyzed major roads within a 3.5-mile radius of Allegiant at each of these events to understand the trajectory of roadway congestion during the 12 hours surrounding the events. StreetLight also used near real-time data to see these trends during the Super Bowl itself. The analysis measures the percentage of roadways with average speeds below 75% of typical free-flow speeds mapped over the 12 hours surrounding the 9 events and normalized for event start times.

Again, it’s evident how weekday events create much more congestion leading up to the event. In particular, Taylor Swift’s Friday concert dwarfs the other events for peak pre-event congestion, including the Super Bowl. Of course, that is in part driven by event excitement and fans arriving early to buy merchandise, but it is also likely a function of the Friday event time. The single NFL game studied on a weekday, the Monday Oct 9 game, sees the second highest congestion ahead of the event start, ahead of even the Super Bowl.

In fact, pre-event traffic to the Super Bowl follows very similar patterns to the other weekend games, although the period of sustained congestion is slightly longer and earlier than the other events.

The Super Bowl is also not a complete outlier for egress congestion, though traffic did push slightly later, perhaps due to the game going into overtime. Congestion is also sustained for a somewhat longer period during egress compared to all the other events. This could be a reflection of Super Bowl-specific attendance trends, the impact of the downed pole on the strip, and even increased traffic throughout the city as people outside the stadium also got back in their cars following the games.

road congestion on event days at the Super Bowl stadium — *Major roadways and 3.5-mile radius of Allegiant Stadium with average speeds lower than 75% of free flow speed.*

To disentangle normal traffic patterns from event-induced traffic, StreetLight’s tool allows users to compare empirical speeds to free-flow speeds and typical speeds for a given corridor.

In the two charts below, StreetLight shows the differences in these measures across three of the events studied: Taylor Swift’s Friday concert, the Super Bowl, and another Sunday NFL game. The scale in the free-flow chart is higher because the percentage of congested roadways is higher when empirical speed is compared to free-flow speeds.

*Number of roadways within a 3.5-mile radius that are congested over the course of the day as compared to free-flow conditions (left) and typical conditions (right).*

The spike in traffic from Taylor Swift’s Friday concert is more compressed when compared against normal speeds because this measure better accounts for existing weekday traffic. During egress, Swift’s concert and the Super Bowl look similar across both measures.

Solve congestion WITHOUT highway expansion

Big Data for Special Events and Construction Traffic Operations

A big data approach to special events planning can help fill crucial data gaps to anticipate the traffic impact of special events and deploy rapid-response congestion mitigation measures during these events to ease clogged traffic.

Access to on-demand transportation analytics can be used to inform broader travel demand models, analyze past events to inform future event operations, and monitor ongoing events as they unfold. These kinds of insights are critical for dynamically adjusting plans and identifying safety concerns. And because analytics are accessed online, this can expedite special events planning without putting staff in harm’s way for manual counts and surveys that only capture a snapshot of traffic during a short period of time.

This expedited process allows planners and operators to proactively evaluate alternative traffic management strategies and communicate their decisions with the public in advance of special events.

Meanwhile, near real-time traffic data can help operations managers monitor traffic during an event and react quickly to congestion or safety concerns as they develop. Using near real-time data to create a high-level view of congestion throughout the roadway network over time (i.e. viewing a time lapse of traffic conditions like vehicle speeds) can help spotlight where capacity is strained and where there may be potential to reroute traffic to underutilized roadways.

Historical Traffic Data for Special Events Planning

Analyzing historical traffic data can help proactively plan special events traffic management. In particular, these metrics may be helpful:

Traffic Volumes – to understand trends over time, identify when during the day traffic peaks, compare weekdays to weekends, and flag where road capacity may be insufficient and identify potential detours.
Origin-Destination (O-D) and Routing – to understand where attendees tend to travel from, which roadways may become congested, and where traffic could be rerouted to less-used segments to ease traffic flow.
Turning Movements – to pinpoint major intersections and road segments where people turn on their way into the event venue during typical conditions and special events.
VHD – (Vehicle Hours of Delay) to understand how past events have impacted traffic congestion on roads near the venue, and how these conditions affect the larger roadway network.
Travel Time – similar to VHD, travel time analyses can help planners understand how special events impact all road users (not just attendees) and inform public communications around expected delays.
Vehicle Speeds – to evaluate safety conditions and crash risk near the venue, especially for vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists.
Bike and Pedestrian activity – to identify common historical walking and cycling routes to and from the venue.

top routes analysis for state farm stadium event traffic — A StreetLight Top Routes analysis shows the most-used routes traveling to State Farm Stadium near Phoenix, AZ during a Taylor Swift concert (see the full analysis here). Top-used road segments appear in red.

These metrics allow planners to anticipate how traffic conditions will change during special events and prioritize traffic management strategies such as detours, signage, and signal timing that will keep traffic flowing and protect the safety of all road users.

For example, analyzing turning movements by time of day can reveal key intersections leading to the event venue that are well-timed for normal conditions, but stall traffic flow during major events. Planners may use these insights to temporarily retime signals on the day(s) of the event, or specifically during the hours that turning movements peak, to offer more opportunities for attendees to make their turns into and out of the venue. Similarly, planners can flag where event signage could be necessary to direct traffic away from residential or other local streets not suited for high-volume traffic.

Near Real-Time Traffic Data for Special Events and Construction Planning

Near real-time traffic data can be used to respond quickly to road conditions as they change, giving operations managers more insights into the specific tactics that can help mitigate congestion or safety concerns during the atypical traffic patterns that accompany major events like the Super Bowl or during significant construction projects.

For example, operations managers might notice major delays on a specific corridor leading into or out of an event venue. They might then analyze recent vehicle traffic activity on adjacent streets to see where rerouting cars could unjam traffic, or pinpoint the most congested intersections to deploy temporary traffic control personnel or retime smart traffic signals to improve traffic flow.

Analyzing near real-time vehicle speed and traffic flow metrics can also help operations managers pinpoint where pedestrians may face dangerous conditions, allowing them to deploy traffic calming measures quickly if needed.

Near real-time data can also be useful ahead of an event or major construction to understand the most recent traffic trends and inform communications with the public regarding expected delays or detours. This can be especially impactful if there have been recent design changes to nearby roads or the venue itself that may impact traffic flow patterns.

To learn more about leveraging big data for special event, construction, and other traffic operations management, check out our Traffic Engineering and Operations Solutions.

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What Is the Future of Urban Transportation?

future of urban transportation blog header

Urban transportation will undergo significant change in the foreseeable future due to the increasing emphasis on sustainability, tech advances like autonomous and electric vehicles, and a general shift toward integrated mobility solutions. These changes will present both challenges and opportunities to agency stakeholders, large and small businesses, and city dwellers alike.

What could public transport look like in the future, and how will we deal with issues like equity, safety, and the environment? What will happen as automated vehicles and urban air mobility enter the picture? What should government officials, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders know about these various challenges and the future of urban transportation itself?

In this post, we’ll cover:

The Changing Needs of Urban Centers
What Is the Future of Transportation Systems?
Shifting Perspectives from Transportation to Mobility
Environmental Concerns and Decarbonization
New Modes of Mobility: AVs and UAM
Why Big Plans Require Big Data

The Changing Needs of Urban Centers

Urban centers are becoming more densely populated across the U.S. [1] As of 2020, urban areas had an average population density of 2,553 people per square mile, up from 2,343 in 2010. At the same time, urban expansion has led to a significant increase in private cars. This, in turn, has caused more congestion and higher emissions.

But congested roadways and rising emissions don’t have to be the inevitable results of higher population density. Many cities are taking steps to address these challenges with sustainable transportation planning that emphasizes shared mobility and other key strategies.

Some of the green urban transportation strategies now gaining popularity include:

Focusing on “open streets,” where roadways are temporarily closed to vehicle traffic and opened for public use to encourage walking, cycling, or community events.
Implementing congestion pricing to discourage vehicle use at busier times of day.
Creating a reliable network of electric vehicle (EV) chargers to make EVs a more convenient alternative to gas and diesel vehicles.
Building multimodal infrastructure to support active transportation and shared mobility modes like walking, biking, and public transit.

What Is the Future of Transportation Systems?

Transportation is responsible for more climate warming greenhouse gases in the U.S. than any other sector. [2] One study suggests that lowering emissions in the transportation sector alone could account for more than one-third of the 2030 U.S. climate target.3 This will encourage a focus on transportation systems that produce lower amounts of greenhouse gas and other pollutants, and the adoption of technologies like EVs, hybrid vehicles or alternative fuels.

Most U.S. cities are car-centric by design, with much of the population living in sprawling suburban neighborhoods where people must travel miles to reach key commercial centers for employment, school, goods, and essential services.  This type of design disadvantages anyone who does not have access to a car, creating inequities. Investing in and expanding multimodal transportation can help solve this problem.

Public transit is a particularly powerful tool to address these inequities. With data on common traffic origins and destinations, planners can understand where bus routes would be most essential for commuting or accessing essential goods and services like groceries and medical care.

For example, SamTrans, a transit authority in the Bay Area, used traffic data to study how COVID had impacted bus ridership on key commuter routes. Their analysis revealed opportunities to optimize bus schedules, which led to a 30% boost in ridership.

How Will Public Transport Change in the Future?

New transportation solutions will be able to use technologies like advanced mobility platforms and autonomous vehicles. Planners could also consider rapid bus lines, better timetables, and more responsive schedules as a way to improve public transportation. New market entrants can leverage these innovations as they aim to eliminate barriers, enhance efficiency, and provide a seamless, user-friendly experience.

Crucially, decision-makers will also need to look for different funding methods as traditional gas tax revenues drop. Governments have long relied on revenues from the sale of gas and will need to find alternative solutions as gas-powered vehicles decline.

New systems also need careful planning to avoid an increase in congestion and minimize environmental impact. Planners will need to consider autonomous vehicles and mobility as a service solutions, as these technologies may eventually be cost-competitive alongside traditional urban mass transport services.

Shifting Perspectives from Transportation to Mobility

Transportation focuses on the logistics of moving vehicles, while mobility factors in accessibility, environmental sustainability, and user experience. For this reason, many advocates and practitioners within the transportation industry are calling for an increased emphasis on mobility as part of a people-oriented approach to urban planning.

Centering People: Equity in Urban Transportation

Equitable access to transportation is critical because it impacts access to housing, employment, health care, education, and other essential services. This means transportation systems can easily exacerbate existing inequities people experience based on their race, class, disability, and more, or they can become tools to mitigate these inequities.

For example, low-income communities that have greater access to jobs within a 15-minute drive have a higher upward economic mobility. Improvements to public transportation can help people who rely on this mode of travel for their employment needs. Currently, the average U.S. metropolitan resident can only access 30% of jobs in their region within a 90-minute journey. [4]

Some communities also suffer more than others when it comes to the burden of environmental hazards, including pollution from transportation. [5] Equitable urban transportation planning can mitigate these impacts and reduce the concentration of negative effects in specific areas — such as neighborhoods predominately inhabited by people of color.

Low-emission transportation modes like EVs, biking, and walking, as well as shared modes like public transit, can help cut overall transportation emissions and improve air quality in our cities. Access to safe and reliable transportation options such as cycling or walking can also contribute to general health. [6]

A Safer World for Bicycles and Pedestrians

Increasingly, planners are centering those outside of vehicles in transportation design conversations.

To create a safe world for bicyclists and pedestrians — often referred to by government entities as “vulnerable road users” — planners will need to focus on infrastructure improvements as well as policy initiatives and community engagement. For example, Complete Streets policies can help enable safe access for all road users, regardless of mode of transportation, age, or experience. [7]

Specifically, building safe cycling and pedestrian infrastructure often involves creating protected bike lanes and pedestrian paths along existing roadways to reduce conflicts with motorized traffic. Planners can also prioritize safety at intersections by adding pedestrian islands or countdown signals, increasing pedestrian crossing intervals, and adding bike-specific signal phases.

Illinois traffic calming-measures example from StreetLight's Safety Prioritize tool

New Modes of Mobility: AVs and UAM

New modes of transportation are already here, and cities will need to wrestle with how to support and regulate these modes.

Autonomous Vehicles

As autonomous vehicles (AVs) become more popular, there will be significant implications for city development and transportation. Should these vehicles become widespread, this could have a big impact on transportation, urban design, land use, real estate, and safety. [9]

One such impact could include a significant reduction in the demand for parking and a drop in the number of vehicle miles traveled as people share transportation. Also, autonomous vehicles could improve first- and last-mile connections for individual travelers. While this may decrease the number of people who use conventional transit solutions, [10] it may also place additional pressure on transportation providers who could face additional revenue pressures as a consequence.

More widespread use of AVs could have implications when it comes to urbanization, as there may be less demand for land or services once set aside for “traditional” vehicles. Planners may need to redesign certain streets if there is less need for car parking, or develop new transportation nodes to support intermodal travel.

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Urban Air Mobility

Urban air mobility (UAM) refers to the use of small electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) that can carry passengers at lower altitudes in urban areas, and it could significantly impact transportation policies. Indeed, some organizations like Uber have already begun exploring this “space age” opportunity.

To accommodate these new aircraft, governments will need to develop “vertiports” [11] and other infrastructure while addressing land-use planning, zoning regulations, or safety standards for these new solutions. These vehicles would share air space with traditional aircraft and ground space with conventional cars or AVs. Further, noise could be a significant factor for planners, and lawmakers will need to mitigate disturbance to residents while maintaining UAM operations.

How will transportation planners integrate UAM solutions with existing transportation modes? They may plan for seamless passenger transfers between these aerial vehicles and other transit modes, such as trains or buses.

While AVs and UAMs may still be on the horizon, planners should also understand that these new technologies could produce inherent risks, including problems around cybersecurity and privacy.  For example, there are several known cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the UAM realm. [12]

Big Plans Require Big Data

To make smart decisions as they plan for the future of urban transportation, stakeholders must gather and interpret data on how people move. Transportation professionals often rely on automatic traffic counters, manual counts, or surveys to collect this data, but these traditional methods each have limitations.

More and more, transportation planners and engineers are supplementing these traditional methods with online, on-demand traffic data platforms, which use big data methods to deliver more information for more roads and more modes, for any time of the day or year.

For example, in the video below, a data scientist from the Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities explains how they use big data to get actionable emissions measurements to help regional municipalities and transportation agencies drive down greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

For more resources to help you leverage big data for better mobility in your city, check out Any Road Any Mode: Guide to the Transportation Data Revolution.

Nation’s Urban and Rural Populations Shift Following 2020 Census https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/urban-rural-populations.html
Carbon Pollution from Transportation. https://www.epa.gov/transportation-air-pollution-and-climate-change/carbon-pollution-transportation
An All in Pathway to 2030: U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Potential https://www.americaisallin.com/all-pathway-2030-us-methane-emissions-reduction-potential
Delivering on Equity with Mobility Technologies. https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/insights/industry/public-sector/transportation-equity.html
Environmental Inequalities. https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/topics/in-depth/environmental-inequalities
Cycling and Walking Can Help Reduce Physical Inactivity and Air Pollution, Save Lives and Mitigate Climate Change. https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/07-06-2022-cycling-and-walking-can-help-reduce-physical-inactivity-and-air-pollution–save-lives-and-mitigate-climate-change
Adopting a Strong Complete Streets Policy. https://smartgrowthamerica.org/program/national-complete-streets-coalition/policy-atlas/policy-development/
Demand for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Buses Continues to Rise. https://cleantechnica.com/2023/11/13/demand-for-hydrogen-fuel-cell-buses-continues-to-rise/
Multilevel Impact of Emerging Technologies. https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.uoregon.edu/dist/f/13615/files/2020/01/NSF-Report_All-Chapters_FINAL_013020.pdf
The Influence of Introducing Autonomous Vehicles on Conventional Transport Modes and Travel Time. https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/14/4163
Highflying: Vertiports and the Future of Urban Travel https://ww3.rics.org/uk/en/modus/built-environment/resilient-infrastructure/vertiports-urban-travel.html
A Review of Cyber Security Vulnerabilities for Urban Air Mobility. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348244879_A_Review_on_Cybersecurity_Vulnerabilities_for_Urban_Air_Mobility

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What’s the Difference Between Transportation and Mobility?

collage of modes of transportation and mobility

As concerns around productivity, sustainability, efficiency, and social equity have grown across the U.S., so has the importance of mobility. And though transportation infrastructure has been advanced and codified over centuries under the formal governance of federal and state-level Departments of Transportation (DOTs), Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), local municipalities, and certain commercial bodies, there is still a long way to go to ensure safe, accessible, and equitable mobility for all.

To make progress, it helps to understand the difference between mobility as a holistic term and transportation as a narrower focus. Mobility is a more comprehensive topic, and moves beyond physical transportation into the whole ecosystem. An analysis of mobility issues may show that some Americans have only limited access to transportation modes, thus limiting their mobility. Some legacy transportation modes only work independently of others and contribute to growing sustainability worries.

This article explores why local authorities and enterprise companies must pay close attention to mobility in transportation. It also suggests ways to take advantage of the tremendous wealth of data that’s now available to help with planning and growth.

We’ll focus on the following areas:

Defining Transportation and Mobility
Why Does Mobility Matter?
What’s the Difference between Mobility on Demand and Mobility as a Service?
Smart Transportation and Mobility
The Data Behind Better Mobility

Defining Transportation and Mobility

Transportation refers to how goods and people move from point to point. It includes elements such as infrastructure, vehicles, fuel, regulation, logistics, and technology. For example, planners need to decide if roads, highways, bridges, and public transit systems have sufficient capacity or efficiency.

Mobility looks beyond the “nuts and bolts” of transportation to assess how systems offer good access and ease of movement to people and things. The distinction may seem subtle, but focusing on how much people have the ability to move helps highlight factors of accessibility and equity.

A transportation system might provide the opportunity for people and things to move from place to place in one way or another, but a person may still be immobile within this system due to factors like disability, poverty, racial profiling and discrimination, or an inability to understand the language of roadway signs or public transit instructions.

Mobility systems help make transportation more efficient, minimize congestion, reduce travel times, and ensure a good flow of people within an area. Good mobility systems also offer a variety of transportation options catering to various needs like walking, cycling or public transport, as well as shared mobility services.

What’s an Example of Good Mobility?

When a community has good mobility solutions, its people have access to various transportation services, some of which cater to the individual needs of those on low income, the elderly, or people with disabilities. When new infrastructure or policy is added to the community, efforts are made to ensure it is equitable and inclusive. This in turn means people can use the transportation network to easily access essential services like recreation, education, healthcare, and employment.

Why Does Mobility Matter?

Mobility issues affect the economy, the environment, safety, and social equity in many ways.

Productivity and the Economy

While transportation networks are built to enable to movement of people and goods, mobility focuses on the factors that impact people and things’ ability to move. Therefore, while the movement of goods via freight, aircraft, and ships is one key way transportation systems impact the economy, a focus on mobility will further highlight the human elements of a well-functioning economy.

We’ve already noted that a good mobility system ensures people can access places of employment, the healthcare that keeps them well enough to work, and education systems that can help prepare them for specialized labor and teach financial literacy. In addition, when mobility systems are efficient, commute times are reduced, delivery drivers arrive quickly, and customers have easy access to goods and services.

Studies confirm that when mobility is compromised, retail businesses suffer. For example, when vehicle and pedestrian traffic dropped during the pandemic, retail vacancies also spiked. As people regained some of their mobility and traffic began to recover, so did retail vacancy rates, though the impact of COVID still lingers in many cities.

two shoppers in sundresses admire clothing in a window display

Social Equity and Quality of Life

Mobility improves the quality of life within communities, giving access to careers, healthcare, education, and recreation. Likewise, mobility supports social inclusion, giving people convenient access to spaces of shared community, governance, care, culture, and more. Public transportation is a key part of creating convenient, accessible access to these facets of social life, yet 45% of Americans have no access to it. [1]

If people do not have equitable access to transportation modes, this inevitably leads to disparity and social injustice. [2] Planners can consider topics like “spatial mismatch,” where there’s a lack of connectivity between employment centers and communities. They may investigate countermeasures such as reverse commuting, to connect low-income city areas to a suburban job center.

Sustainability and Climate

Safe access to more modes of transportation helps reduce the environmental impact of transportation. Planners can promote sustainable options like walking or cycling and provide infrastructure to encourage electric vehicles. These solutions help reduce pollution and improve overall quality of life.

Meanwhile, extreme weather events are in the news, and mobility systems need to become far more resilient in the face of climate change. [3] For example, rising sea levels and extreme storms cause flooding and storm surges, which damage roads and bridges. Over time, this can also weaken roadway materials, leading to higher repair bills and traffic congestion.

Excessive heat could also damage rail tracks and cause cracks to appear in roads, posing safety risks for travelers and transportation workers.

As the climate crisis causes more extreme weather events like wildfires, floods, and landslides, the ability to evacuate also becomes all the more critical to saving lives. Access to safe modes of transportation and evacuation routes with enough capacity to support mass travel out of an affected area can become major factors to survival, as well as the ability to return, recover, and rebuild after disaster strikes.

Congestion and Commuting

The economic cost of congestion is significant, especially in large cities. It can lead to wasted time, energy, and fuel as commute times stretch and people take more time on the way to work. To relieve congestion, transportation agencies might add separate bus or bike lanes, or completely redesign a busy intersection to improve flow. For example, they may convert the intersection into a traffic light-controlled operation or install a roundabout.

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Safety

Safety and mobility are intrinsically linked. When people do not have access to safe means of travel, their mobility is dramatically reduced. Vice versa, if someone is not mobile, they will likely lack access to resources that keep them safe.

For example, if someone who relies on public transit to get around does not have a safe pedestrian path that can take them from a bus stop to a healthcare facility, they may be forced to miss doctor’s appointments because they cannot travel without putting themself in danger. Simultaneously, this lack of access to medical care also makes them vulnerable to disease, disability, and death.

The danger people face on U.S. roads mustn’t be understated. Although there was a slight decrease in road fatalities across the US in 2022, these deaths represent a rate of 1.35 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.4 In addition, pedestrian fatalities actually increased over this period, even as pedestrian activity plummeted.

Although vehicle safety regulations in the U.S. have improved over the years, they still leave much to be desired, and fail to take into account the safety of those outside vehicles such as cyclists, pedestrians, and road workers. Our Transportation Safety Data Handbook has more information on how transportation professionals can assess road safety and move toward safer infrastructure and operations.

safety analysis in StreetLight InSight platform

What’s the Difference between Mobility on Demand and Mobility as a Service?

While infrastructure and policy are critical to mobility, recent technological developments also hope to advance urban mobility. Two key developments in this area have been the emergence of mobility-on-demand (MoD) and mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) technologies.

MoD provides on-demand access to a range of transportation systems throughout the community. These could include micro-mobility (small, low speed, electrically-powered transportation options) or ride-sharing solutions such as Lyft or Uber.

On the other hand, MaaS has a more integrated and broader focus involving a range of transportation modes. These might also include ride sharing, but extend to public transit and more, providing an end-to-end and seamless transportation experience for a range of users.

For example, apps can be used to deliver real-time information about public transportation, including train and bus schedules as well as info about ride-sharing options so people can plan their journeys.

MoD and MaaS are part of a larger ecosystem of smart transportation technologies that are advancing mobility, which we’ll explore next.

Smart Transportation and Mobility

Smart transportation solutions help to create more sustainable, efficient, and convenient mobility systems. These solutions rely on cutting-edge technology and connected infrastructure. Efficient services depend on the collection and analysis of data from various sources with the aim of optimizing systems and enhancing mobility. These data sources can include road sensors, mobile apps, GPS, traffic lights, connected vehicles, and more.

Because smart transportation systems often use data from personal devices like smartphones and connected vehicles, strong data privacy practices are key to ensuring positive impact. For example, you can learn how StreetLight anonymizes and validates traffic data here.

For example, smart transportation systems can support mobility by:

Delivering relevant and up-to-date data to help travelers make better or more informed decisions. Travelers might reference public transit schedules and real-time vehicle positioning, traffic conditions, or parking availability. This can improve mobility by reducing travel time and congestion as well as boosting transit ridership.
Creating more seamless integrations between different modes of transportation. For example, smart transportation systems might help travelers plan a route that allows them to bike safely to the nearest bus stop, and which stop to get off so that they can use a protected bike lane to travel the remaining distance. This seamlessness encourages people to rely less on private cars and plan point-to-point journeys through these multi-modal solutions.
Providing transportation professionals with the data they need to adjust traffic signals and optimize daily operations based on real traffic patterns, leading to safer travel with less congestion.
Minimizing human mistakes for safer roadways through collision avoidance systems and other in-vehicle smart tech.

The Data Behind Better Mobility

As noted in the section above, advancing mobility effectively relies on having actionable data about how people and vehicles move, whether they are walking, biking, busing or driving — or even using multiple modes in a single trip. Transportation professionals often rely on automatic traffic counters, manual counts, or surveys to collect this data, but these traditional methods each have limitations.

For example, in the video below, Xinbo Mi, a Senior Transportation Engineer at Evansville MPO explains how the agency uses big data analytics from StreetLight to understand real traveler patterns, such as the top routes people use to access a major regional hospital, and who is actually using existing infrastructure.

For more resources to help you leverage big data for better mobility in your region, check out Any Road Any Mode: Guide to the Transportation Data Revolution.

NHTSA 2022 Roadway Fatalities. https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/traffic-crash-death-estimates-2022
Urban Mobility Report 2019. https://trid.trb.org/view/1647076
Transportation Justice, Commuter Knowledge, and Equitable Access. https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/transportation-justice-commute-knowledge-and-equitable-access
Climate Change Impacts on Transportation. https://www.epa.gov/climateimpacts/climate-change-impacts-transportation

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Multimodal Transportation: What Is It, and How Does It Benefit Everyone?

In the United States, transportation planning goals and existing road design are often out of sync. In many U.S. cities, roads were built first for vehicles, with little thought given to other types of transportation.

This imbalanced approach has far-reaching effects, impacting public health and well-being in many ways. In 2022, there were over 7,600 pedestrian deaths in the U.S., more than 17% of all traffic-related fatalities. [1] Meanwhile, the transportation sector is responsible for more than 25% of all pollution-related deaths each year. [2] Not only that, but the existing road infrastructure in many cities fails to account for the 9% of U.S. households that don’t have a car [3] or the 45% of Americans who lack access to public transportation. [4]

Solving these problems requires a different approach to transportation. Instead of putting the majority of public and private resources into one mode of transportation (i.e., vehicles), cities can expand multimodal options, investing in infrastructure that supports a wide range of transportation modes, from public transit to pedestrian traffic. By shifting to multimodal transportation, we can make our roadways safer and more accessible for all — and move the needle in the fight against climate change.In this post, we’ll cover:

Multimodal transportation definition
Multimodal vs. intermodal transportation
Benefits of multimodal transportation systems
Building complete streets
Understanding multimodal movement through data

What Is Multimodal Transportation?

In one sense, the definition of multimodal transportation is straightforward: It’s an approach to transport that incorporates all modes people use to get around. These may include:

Automobiles
Commuter railways
Buses
Bicycles
Walking
Micromobility modes such as e-bikes and scooters

A fully multimodal transportation system features not only roadways that can support a variety of transport methods, but also a well-integrated public transit system. In other words, the entire mobility infrastructure must be designed to support a variety of ways for people to get around, along with easy commuter access to public transit and ease of transition between modes.

For example, when placed near every bus stop or subway access point, sidewalks and crosswalks can enhance safety and accessibility for cyclists and pedestrians. Public transit can also be designed to allow for easy transportation of bikes, and transit stations equipped with benches and shelter. Many American cities lack these infrastructural features, instead featuring mostly multilane roads without bike lanes, few crosswalks, open-air transit stops, and lots of land dedicated to vehicle parking lots.

bus riders at bus stop with skateboards — *Bus riders with skateboards wait at a bus stop, combining multiple modes of transportation in one trip.*

Multimodal vs. Intermodal Transportation

A fully multimodal system is also intermodal, meaning that it facilitates a seamless flow of commuters across the various methods of transit. It also prioritizes pedestrians and other non-vehicle commuters in a way our current systems often do not.

For instance, if someone wants to visit the grocery store or the barber, intermodal design makes it possible for that person to safely choose non-vehicle options for getting there, such as walking or biking. If the trip is far, it might also ensure that person can easily bike to the nearest bus stop, bring their bike onto the bus, and then safely disembark and securely park their bike at their destination.

In a city that prioritizes intermodal design, a commuter can easily look up public transit stops and schedules online or on a mobile app. They can even find available e-bikes in the same app and plan their route accordingly. In one fluid process, they can walk to the e-bike, rent it, ride to the bus stop, wait in shelter and safety, and get to their destination on time, regardless of where they live or their socioeconomic status. True multi- and intermodal transportation systems dissolve the boundaries between different modes of travel.

While this vision is far from realized in any American city today, there are encouraging signs of transformation. While denser cities like New York and Chicago are frequently cited, Memphis also offers a promising model for more typical American cities. Memphis city planning agencies have invested heavily in multimodal transportation, such as bike paths, carpool lanes, trolleys and even water taxis. [5] These investments have also positioned Memphis as one of America’s leading cities for freight and logistics operations. [6]

The Benefits of Multimodal Transportation Systems

Transitioning to a multimodal transportation system brings a wide range of advantages, but we can summarize them in terms of their equity, environmental, and economic benefits.

How Multimodal Transport Is More Equitable

Multimodal transportation is more equitable than a single-mode system, both in terms of transportation access and public health.

As noted above, roughly 9% of American households have no access to a vehicle. However, that lack of access is skewed heavily toward minority communities. A full 18% of Black households lack vehicle access, for example, while the same can only be said for 6% of White households. [3] Many minority communities also find it harder to access efficient means of public transportation. In some cities, Black commuters take 25% longer than White commuters to reach their workplace destination. [7]

These inequities extend beyond race and class and also cut across age lines. One AARP study revealed that 48% of Americans over age 50 don’t have a comfortable place to wait for the bus, while 47% can’t access crosswalks to cross main roads safely. [8]

The effects of such inequities are multifaceted, but perhaps none illustrates the disparity more than health outcomes. Pollution from transportation has an outsized impact on low-income communities, minorities, and young children. [9] Meanwhile, access to active forms of transportation like biking and walking has been correlated with increased physical activity, resulting in a 12% decrease in mortality and an 11% drop in cardiovascular disease. [10] Finally, deaths involving vehicles disproportionately affect pedestrians, children, older adults, and Black Americans. [11], [12]

An equitable approach to multimodal transportation directly confronts these disparities by providing safe, easy, and affordable access to a wide range of transportation types.

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How Multimodal Transport Helps the Environment

Poor air quality from pollution results in 100,000–200,000 annual deaths in the U.S. [13] However, the transportation sector’s effects on air quality extend beyond immediate public health concerns to threaten the environment as a whole. Currently, transportation accounts for 29% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the U.S., more than any other sector. [14]

On a global scale, the United Nations has set a target of a 50% reduction in transportation-related carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, citing this as a critical target to help reach larger goals for mitigating climate change. [15] While many of these initiatives focus on the transition to electric vehicles — and they should — there is also a case to be made for a broader focus on multimodal transportation.

For instance, one study showed that cyclists produced 84% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than those who used cars or public forms of transit. [16] Making cycling, walking, and e-mobility more accessible and safe could have a substantial effect on GHG emissions. Even moving more Americans from cars to public transit would go a long way.

How Multimodal Transport Boosts Economic Prospects

It’s no secret that automobiles are expensive. Depreciation, maintenance, and rising fuel expenses are all costs of ownership, and the purchase price of vehicles has risen steadily in recent years. [17] On top of that, today’s high interest rates make financing a car an even more costly proposition.

One of the simplest solutions to this cost burden is to make cars less of a necessity. When more Americans can choose alternative forms of transportation, they can allocate less of their budget toward getting around. For instance, shifting from vehicle to public transportation would save the average American $13,000 a year, according to the American Public Transportation Association. [18]

However, a multimodal system does more than simply reduce expenses — it also creates an onramp for upward economic mobility. Studies have shown a strong correlation between shorter commute times and economic mobility. [19] Yet, many high-paying jobs or better opportunities remain out of reach for low-income and minority communities, simply because the commute is too long and costly. By expanding access to efficient and affordable public transport, adding more forms of micromobility, and making transit stops easier to reach by bike, multimodal systems can help to bring these jobs within reach.

This impact extends beyond individual citizens to impact the local economy as a whole. Although more research is needed to secure concrete data, numerous studies have shown positive impacts on local business revenues when cities invest in making their roads more pedestrian- and bike-friendly. [20]

Building Complete Streets

Ultimately, to advocate for multimodal transportation is also to advocate for what are known as “Complete Streets.” Although true multimodal logistics and planning must account for more than just street design, no multimodal system is sufficient without considering this critical component.

A Complete Streets approach considers accessibility and safety from every angle when it comes to street layout. From adding bike and bus lanes to upgrading traffic signals for the visually impaired, Complete Streets policies aim to make roadways safe and user-friendly for everyone.

Designing Complete Streets has been shown to slow down traffic even without substantially increasing congestion. For instance, one StreetLight study of a bike lane installation in North Kansas City, Missouri, showed that the bike lanes nearly eliminated traffic traveling over 40 miles an hour while only increasing the average vehicle trip by five seconds.

Understanding Multimodal Movement Through Data

Effectively implementing a multimodal transportation plan always begins with understanding the current traffic patterns and modes of transportation in your area — and data access is essential for that understanding. What percentage of people use vehicles as opposed to public transit, cycling and walking? How many of the cars on the road are electric? Where is public transit readily accessible? Data offers answers to these important questions.

For example, when a Vancouver transit agency, TransLink, needed to gain political buy-in for investments in multimodal infrastructure, they combined StreetLight’s vehicle volumes data with their own ridership counts to show that bus usage was much higher than previously understood, helping them make the case for new bus lanes and rapid bus lines.

Transportation data can also help evaluate existing multimodal infrastructure for equitable impact. For instance, in the video below, Alex Bell of Renaissance Planning explains how they used StreetLight’s multimodal metrics to help Richmond, VA develop measures of accessibility for walking, biking, and transit modes. This data allowed them to reveal the causes and impacts of low access, including who is most underserved by existing infrastructure.

Governors Highway Safety Association. “Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State.”
Environmental Science and Technology Letters. “Reducing Mortality from Air Pollution in the United States by Targeting Specific Emission Sources.”
National Equity Atlas. “Car access: Everyone needs reliable transportation access and in most American communities that means a car.”
American Public Transportation Association. “Public Transportation Facts.”
Memphis MPO. “On the Move and Growing.”
Inbound Logistics. “Memphis: America’s Multimodal City.”
National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “Roadblocks to Transportation Access.”
U.S. Department of Transportation. “Multimodal Access to Public Transportation.”
National Library of Medicine. “Traffic, Air Pollution, Minority and Socio-Economic Status: Addressing Inequities in Exposure and Risk.”
U.S. Department of Transportation. “Physical Activity From Transportation.”
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “Traffic Safety Facts.”
Smart Growth America. “Dangerous by Design 2014.”
ACS Publications. “Reducing Mortality from Air Pollution in the United States by Targeting Specific Emission Sources.”
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Fast Facts on Transportation Greenhouse Gas Emissions.”
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. “Climate Change and Sustainable Transport.”
ScienceDirect. “The climate change mitigation effects of daily active travel in cities.”
Consumer Reports. “Cars Are Expensive. Here’s Why and What You Can Do About It.”
American Public Transportation Association. “New APTA Report Says Public Transit Users Can Save $13,000 Annually.”

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