Universal accessibility and multimodal calm traffic on secondary streets to reduce pedestrian and vehicular conflicts

Cities without territorial planning have narrow collector streets surrounded by commercial establishments where there is a lack of road safety and universal accessibility. Studies to determine the level of service of multimodal collector streets (such as the Highway Capacity Manual) do not consider factors such as land use, geometry of the road cross section, and potential conflict points between active and motorized transport flows. This paper presents a methodology that considers the economic activities related to mixed land uses around collector streets, and vulnerable users as well as other factors. A case study is presented for an unsignalized collector street, in an area with residential, mixed commerce, and institutional land use. This paper studies the following: collector streets that connect local streets with mass public transport corridors; connectivity through a multimodal network, accessible to all people and modes; and road infrastructure characteristics. Some identified problems are related to traffic characteristics, potential conflicts between motorized and non-motorized traffic, lane side obstruction, road safety risks, and lack of universal accessibility. The obtained solution search to eliminate pedestrian-vehicle conflicts by introducing calming traffic devices and propose a dynamic use of side lanes to facilitate trade and services required by the community.