Tuesday, 5/8/12Atherton Transportation Committee Meeting

by Gary Lauder

Improving the Intersection of Alameda & Atherton Avenue

IntroductionWho I am

• Atherton resident with 36-year fascination with traffic patterns

• No formal training in field...that doesn’t mean I’m wrong

• International travel shown what’s possible w/roundabouts

• The CA Department of Transportation is enthusiastic

- Most other states’ DOTs are too

Why me?

• Who else?

Why this is worth doingProblem 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

This is 8:30AM last week

This is 8:30 AM last week

This is 5:40 PM last week

This is 5:40 PM last week

Main Problem: Rush hour congestion

I measured 4.5 minutes to get through northbound at 5:30pm

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?

Cost of lost time DURING JAM3.8 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

Lost time from stopping at sign when no queue7,000 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 people’s time wasted

Each year wastes the equvalent of 8.5 person-years

Steve Jobs story from bio (saving lives by saving time)

Cost of Gas

> 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 @ 5% = $17,147,970 !!!

Why have people not complained?

Why would people if they did not imagine a solution?

Not enough roundabouts here for people to realize it’s a solution

No roundabouts in San Mateo County nor SF, only one in Santa Clara.

Roundabouts were not even mentioned in this book I bought in 1989

Safety:Traffic 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

Reasons Roundabouts Are Safer

Roundabout Capacity

Capacity in cars/hour is ≈ 1,200 per direction minus cars that turn left in opposite direction

That’s improvement of >50%, so would eliminate congestion

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.

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

Recommendations

Traffic study to quantify extent of problem

Retain expert on roundabouts to opine

Gary Lauder

Gary@LauderPartners.com

Thank you

Carmel, IN map showing the manyroundabouts they

installed. Only one traffic light left.

Map of Carmel, Indiana, roundabout capital of America

What about time & gas?

Traffic keeps flowing

Less braking = less accelerating = less gas = less pollution

Less time wasted (time = $)

Partly accounts for Europe’s better MPG than in USA

Roundabouts are…

Better than traffic lights

Better than 4-way stop signs

Expensive to install

More expensive not to

Not applicable in all situations

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)

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

Cutting Room Floor: QuotationsUseless 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))