'Road diet' on Moncton's Mountain Road aims to slow speeders

When you think of a diet you likely think of reducing what you eat, but a road diet planned for Mountain Road in Moncton will reduce the lanes of traffic on the busy thoroughfare.

Cityengineer AlcideRichard said the three-kilometre section of Mountain Road, from BulmanDrive to Front Mountain Road, is being resurfaced so it made sense toreconfigure the four lanes of traffic at the same time.

"It's a road diet," RichardtoldInformation MorningMonctonas he explained how the traffic lanes will shrink to three.

Bike lanes will be created on both sides of the road. Each side will also have athrough lane for vehicles, but the centre lane will be a shared lane for making left turns.

It will be similar to lane changes that have been made on other busy streets in recent years, including ShediacRoad, Salisbury Road and KillamDrive.

Richard said the section ofMountainRoad that's being changed is"overbuilt" for the amount of traffic that uses it, and as a result drivers are going too fast.

"So when you get in back of a vehicle, somebody's going maybe 52, 53 km/h, and you're in a hurry. You pull in the outer lane which is not supposed to be a passing lane, it's supposed to be another travel lane and we have issues with speeding."

Traffic counts show the end of Mountain Road closer to Bulman Drive sees about 13,000 vehicles a day, while the end near Front Mountain Road sees just 5,000.

"In order to control [the speeding], we reduce the drivable surface," Richard said. "And what happens is yourmore cautious driversand the people that follow the rules and the laws of the roadway end up controlling the pace, especially in peak times."

Richard said the "road diet" has worked in other areas and he expects it will also be successful on MountainRoad.

"A two-lane roadway with proper turning lanes will handle up to 25,000 vehicles a day."

Critics see benefits

Richard heard from many people who were opposed to reducing the number of lanes on ShediacRoad and Salisbury Road but said in the end, many agreed the changes were a good idea.

"There's actually people there that came back to me once it was all done and advised me that it worked," he said.

"People are walking along the sidewalks on ShediacRoad now, and they're feeling more comfortable, and it's really doing what it's meant to."

The work to resurface Mountain Road began Monday, and Richard doesn't expect it will takelong to complete.

Safer for bikes

"It's really line-painting at the end of the day, so once the asphaltgoes down we'll just paint the lines differently, and were going to have to put signage up to advise motorists where it's narrowing down but it shouldn't take too long."

Richard said reduced speeds and increased safety are some of the expected benefits of the road diet.

"There's also a lot of driveways and a lot of connection points on that roadway so we're just trying to make it a little safer for everybody especially bicycles."