DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS

CITY OF NEW ORLEANS

 

March 3, 2016

Baronne Street Gravier to Howard
Bike Lane Addition/Lane Drop ollow-up
1-10 West Ramps Re-opened

In late 2014, the City converted Baronne Street between Gravier and Howard from two vehicular
lanes of travel to one vehicular lane and one bike lane. During the last follow-up in mid-2015,
the entrance ramps to 1-10 West near the Superdome were closed. These ramps have recently re?
opened and this additional follow-up has been completed to determine the current impacts of the
changes.

Observed Conditions:
Delays were minimal during the off-peak hours, with suf?cient capacity on Baronne to handle
the traf?c it experienced.

Cyclists were observed to travel in both directions in the dedicated lane, as well as along the
sidewalk on both sides of the roadway. They also were observed to ignore the traf?c signals and
traverse through the intersections whenever they desired.

Motorists were noted traveling in the bike lane for extended distances (some from Poydras all the
way to Julia and beyond). This was especially true during the PM peak, although the volume of
motorists performing this maneuver was reduced from the previous follow-up.

While queues of vehicles at certain times did extend from Calliope to Poydras occasionally
during the observed PM peak hours, as they did during the previous follow?up, the number of
occurrences dropped signi?cantly. Some days the line never extended this far, and on the days
that it did, the time period over which this happened was shortened considerably.

Analysis:

It is apparent from the conditions noted during the three week observation period that the re-
opening of the I-10 West ramps near the Superdome has lessened the vehicular volumes on
Baronne during the PM peak hour. While previously the extremely long queues of vehicles
(back-ups beginning between Lafayette and Poydras) remained for up to an hour, currently
queues of this length were only experienced for a period of 15-20 minutes (and often less).

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Travel times conducted over the last several weeks were also reduced from the times measured
previously. The average travel time on current runs started between 5:00pm and 5:45pm was
6:35, with a low of4z57 and a high of 10:54. This is signi?cantly lower than the previous travel
time average of 13:14 and also lower than the pre-conversion average time of 8:42. It should be
noted that the previous travel times were measured prior to the timing and phase changes of the
signals at Baronne and Calliope (which are largely responsible for the travel time reductions).

Recommendation:

While queues did occasionally develop, this is not unexpected during the peak hours in a
CBD environment. In fact, the relatively short duration of these conditions was surprising.

Given this and the drastic reduction in the long queues and the major reduction in travel times
from previous observations, the current one lane con?guration of Baronne operates at an
acceptable level and can remain.

AMY