Attention has been recently directed towards the urban arterial street system to provide greater mobility, specifically in the form of a network of high-mobility arterial streets. These streets named strategic arterials would operate with greater capacity and operating speeds than current principal arterials; however, they would not fulfill the strict requirements of a freeway in terms of access control or right-of-way needs. Planning analyses demonstrated that street capacity was the primary factor casuign diversion from a freeway system to a strategic arterial system. Design features associated with a strategic arterial should be differnet from ordinary arterial streets and identifiable by the motorist as being different. A case study of an existing arterial revealed that at-grade only improvements only increased speeds slightly, due to high traffic congestion. grade-separated improvements were needed to generate speeds similar to freeway speeds. Implementation of strategic arterials will require strong local jurisdictional support, which will play a major role in their success.
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