The purpose of the paper is to disseminate to others involved in improving road safety, the benefits resulting from reducing four lane arterial roads to two lanes. The paper describes each arterial route, the nature and volume of traffic and the accident history prior to and after making the changes. Initial changes required are inexpensive. Annual maintenance costs are minimal relative to the savings in accidents. In one city, political, public and driver reaction to the changes proposed had a significant effect on road safety and the implementation of the work required. At the time, remedies of the nature proposed were quite recent and there was no documented evidence available to convince the politicians and the public that the changes proposed would benefit the community. The changes to the arterial routes in two cities have now been in place for two and four years respectively. The benefits of the improvements are significant and are clearly exceeding expectations. (A)
Abstract