Central business district traffic circulation study: Kansas City, Missouri

Institute of Transportation Engineers. ITE Journal, Feb 2001 by Meredith, Jere, Prem, Clyde

Intersections Near or Over Capacity represents measures of traffic efficiency

After establishing baseline conditions, eight potential traffic circulation scenarios were developed. These scenarios were developed through discussions with the participating agencies, including the DTC, the TAC and the consultant. All of the model runs included future-growth projections for the next five years and committed changes to the street and freeway network. Also, the impact of region-wide changes in land use and the transportation system were accounted for by utilizing a regional land use and transportation model in the analysis. These eight scenarios were tested using the traffic model. The following is a description of the scenarios, and the results are summarized in Table 1.

Scenario 1: This scenario reflects a number of the concepts developed as part of the 1971 CBD Circulation Plan. Conceptually, this scenario would create higher capacity one-way pairs around the perimeter of the CBD, with the remaining streets converted to two-way operation inside. An exception would be a one-way pair system of 1 Oth and 11 th Streets through the interior.

Scenario 2: This scenario is essentially the same as Scenario 1 except that no change would be made to the western perimeter, leaving Broadway as two-way.

Scenario 3: This scenario includes many of the features of Scenario 2, but includes more one-way pair combinations. Specifically, this scenario includes a one-way pair of Oak and Locust Streets, Walnut and Main Streets, Central and Wyandotte south of 12th Street, 7th/8th, lOth/Ilth, 13th/14th and North Truman/South Truman.

Scenario 4: This scenario would result in fewer modifications to circulation. Here, 7th/Admiral Street would be extended from Locust as a two-way street to Broadway. In addition, both Holmes and Charlotte would be converted from one-way to two-way operation.

Scenario 5: This scenario tests the impacts of converting a majority of both the north-south and east-west streets located in the eastern third of the CBD to two-way traffic. Public services are located in this area of the CBD. Included is the conversion of 9th and 10th Street to two-way traffic between Main and Broadway. In addition, Central is shown as two-way between 12th and 9th.

Scenario 6: This scenario results in a significant conversion of one-way to twoway streets. It includes only five one-way pairs located on Wyandotte/Baltimore, Oak/Locust, lOth/llth, 13th/14th and North Truman/South Truman.

Scenario 7: This represents nearly a total conversion to two-way traffic operation. All streets are coded as two-way except for the roads that function as frontage roads to 1-70 and 1-670.

Scenario 8: This scenario is a slight reduction in two-way conversion from Scenario 7. Here, Central, Wyandotte and Baltimore would be one-way. For east-west streets, 12th, 13th, 14th, North Truman/South Truman would be oneway. Oak Street would be one-way between 6th and 10th Streets and Locust north of 8th Street.

The results of the traffic model provided an indication about how the circulation changes would affect downtown travel. As expected, converting streets to two-way traffic operation generally reduces the VMT. However, the shortest travel distances occurred in Scenario 8. It was noted that the all two-way scenario did not result in the lowest VMT, perhaps because the model assigned traffic to non-congested routes and diverted them from their direct path of travel. The reduction in VMT is considered desirable. However, the conversion of streets to two-way traffic also generally tended to increase the amount of time needed to travel through the CBD and the number of congested intersections. The TAC and the DTC were asked to determine how much of an increase in travel time was tolerable to achieve more direct travel. These two groups determined those scenarios that resulted in relatively high changes in VHT should be eliminated from further consideration. These scenarios included 1, 3, 6 and 7. The remaining scenarios-2, 5 and 8 that resulted in improvements in VMT without large decreases in VHT-were given further consideration.