Tuesday, 5/8/12

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Improving the Intersection of Alameda Atherton
Avenue

• Tuesday, 5/8/12
• Atherton Transportation Committee Meeting
• by Gary Lauder

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Introduction

• Who I am
• Atherton resident with 36-year fascination with
  traffic patterns
• No formal training in field...that doesnt mean
  Im wrong
• International travel shown whats possible
  w/roundabouts
• The CA Department of Transportation is
  enthusiastic
• Most other states DOTs are too
• Why me?
• Who else?

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Why this is worth doing

• Problem affects thousands of people each day
• Avoid time wastage (time , so hidden tax)
• Better for the environment
• Better fuel efficiency
• Another tax
• Geopolitical implications
• Safer
• Create a model to be imitated elsewhere

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This is 830AM last week
This is 830 AM last week
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This is 540 PM last week
This is 540 PM last week
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Main Problem Rush hour congestion

• I measured 4.5 minutes to get through northbound
  at 530pm
• Traffic was backed up to Camino Al Lago 1800
  feet
• Compared to speed limit, that means delay of 3.8
  minutes/car
• There were 56 cars in the jam
• 750 cars/hour get through at rate of 12.5
  cars/minute
• Q What is the cost of that lost time?

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Cost of lost time DURING JAM

• 3.8 minutes/car
• x 750 cars/hour
• 48 car hours per hour of jam (in that
  direction)
• x 1.2 occupants per car
• 57 person hours per hour of jam (in that
  direction)
• x 20/hour (average wage in USA)
• 1,145/hour opportunity cost of time lost x 260
  delay hrs/yr
• 297,818/year per direction (assuming jam is
  only 1 hour)
• x 2 directions 595,636 per year

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Lost time from stopping at sign when no queue

• 7,000 cars/day 1,500 cars already counted
  during jam 5,500
• x 10 Seconds/car 15.3 Hours/day 5,580
  Hours/year
• x 20/hour (average wage in USA) x 1.2
  occupants/car
• 133,925 opportunity cost of time lost / year
  just from stopping
• Add to that the time lost waiting in the jams of
  595,636
• 729,561 of peoples time wasted
• Each year wastes the equvalent of 8.5
  person-years
• Steve Jobs story from bio (saving lives by saving
  time)

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Cost of Gas

• gt 7,000 cars/day on Alameda
• 2 ounces of gas 5 to accelerate
• X 7,000 cars/day 350/day 127,838 /year
• But that is only the gasoline cost
• Other costs include pollution and wear on car
• Added to the cost of lost time, total 857,399
  per year!!!
• PV of that annuity discounted _at_ 5 17,147,970
  !!!

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Why have people not complained?

• Why would people if they did not imagine a
  solution?
• Not enough roundabouts here for people to realize
  its a solution
• No roundabouts in San Mateo County nor SF, only
  one in Santa Clara.

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Roundabouts were not even mentioned in this book
I bought in 1989
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SafetyTraffic Lights Stop Signs vs.
Roundabouts

• A study of 24 intersections converted to
  roundabouts found
• Crashes dropped 40
• Injury crashes dropped 76
• Fatal crashes dropped 90
• Main reasons
• Slower speeds
• Lower angles
• Fewer conflict points

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Reasons Roundabouts Are Safer
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This diagram shows pedestrian conflicts
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Roundabout Capacity

• Capacity in cars/hour is 1,200 per direction
  minus cars that turn left in opposite direction
• Thats improvement of gt50, so would eliminate
  congestion

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Cost

• Depends on type of roundabout
• Mini-roundabout can be as little as 50K
• Standard 100K (very approximate)
• Might require some adjacent corner land outside
  of fence
• Even if only 10 of the people inconvenienced are
  Athertonians, still worth it.

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Other issues

• Major source of complaints shortcuts to go
  around congestion
• This should alleviate the underlying congestion
• Shift jam elsewhere?
• A Neither 100 nor 0, but have to start
  somewhere

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Recommendations

• Traffic study to quantify extent of problem
• Retain expert on roundabouts to opine

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Thank you

• Gary Lauder
• Gary_at_LauderPartners.com

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(No Transcript)
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Map of Carmel, Indiana, roundabout capital of
America
Carmel, IN map showing the many roundabouts
they installed. Only one traffic light left.
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What about time gas?

• Traffic keeps flowing
• Less braking less accelerating less gas
  less pollution
• Less time wasted (time )
• Partly accounts for Europes better MPG than in
  USA

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Roundabouts are

• Better than traffic lights
• Better than 4-way stop signs
• Expensive to install
• More expensive not to
• Not applicable in all situations

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Solving the problem can be worth more than
adjacent property

• Could buy it
• Cut down the shrubbery
• Improve the corner sight distance
• Then sell it still come out ahead (compared
  w/putting in a traffic control to deal w/limited
  visibility)

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Full and Complete Stop?

• Few people do
• The law should not compel what is bad for
• the environment
• the driver
• economy
• and serves no one
• Police know this and take advantage when they
  need to raise money quickly

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Cutting Room Floor Quotations

• Useless laws weaken necessary laws.
  Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu
• Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen,
  and thinking what nobody else has thought.
  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
• The world is only changed by people who are naïve
  enough to think that they can change the world.
  Said by Eric Lander at the Aspen Ideas
  Festival 7/2/09.
• The reasonable man adapts himself to the world
  the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt
  the world to himself. Therefore all progress
  depends on the unreasonable man. George
  Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for
  Revolutionists (Irish dramatist socialist
  (1856 1950))