Resolution No. 4608 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Raised Medians Design Guidelines 1) Arterial and collector streets may have a raised median area to decrease the potential for accidents, restrict turning movements, limit land access, furnish an aesthetic separation between opposing traffic, encourage lower vehicle speeds, provide a refuge area for pedestrians or vehicles, increase the efficiency and capacity of the street, and provide space for tree and land- scape plantings. 2) Medians can be used as part of an overall corridor access management strategy to reduce vehicle conflicts, increase capacity, and reduce accidents. 3) Ensure that U-turns can be negotiated at downstream intersections or median breaks when medians are used for access management. 4) Wide streets can present an impediment to pedestrian crossings. Pedestrian refuge medians and! or landscaped medians with pedestrian refuges should be designed into arterial and collector street intersections with more than three lanes, whenever possible, to reduce crossing distances and improve safety and comfort for pedestrians. 5) Medians that function to limit turns, limit land access, or reduce mid-block accidentS can be relatively narrow and sti II provide the necessary channelization. 6) On streets with constrained right-of-way where it is.desirable to provide a median for access management, pedestrian refuge, or A landscaped median on ferry Street 20 aesthetic purposes, consider reducing the number of travel lanes in each direction, or the width of the lanes. 7) Medians should be used in conjunction with Medians can f1e relatively narrow and stili provide their Intended function major driveway consolidations. 8) Medians should be used for access manage- ment on main corridors and on streets with heavy traffic volumes to improve capacity and distribute traffic to side streets and to parking. 9) Coordinate placement and design of medians to accommodate maintenance operations (such as street light maintenance, utility work, etc.) and to insure adequate operating space for fire and emergency medical equipment. 10) Medians at critical intersections can have a specialized dropped, low curb where emergency responders require specialized access. 11) Landscaped medians are used to provide an aesthetic separation between travel lanes and must provide adequate room for tree root growth. The width of landscape medians is variable, depending on the varieties of trees and shrubs planted in the median. (See Figure 7)