'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.

City engineer Alcide Richard said the three-kilometre section of Mountain Road, from Bulman Drive to Front Mountain Road, is being resurfaced so it made sense to reconfigure the four lanes of traffic at the same time.

"It's a road diet," Richard told Information Morning Moncton as 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 a through 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 Shediac Road, Salisbury Road and Killam Drive.

Richard said the section of Mountain Road 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 your more cautious drivers and 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 Mountain Road.

"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 Shediac Road 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 Shediac Road 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 take long to complete.

Safer for bikes

"It's really line-painting at the end of the day, so once the asphalt goes 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."