Effect of Narrowing Traffic Lanes on Pavement Damage

Abstract

Narrowing traffic lanes to a width below 3.66 m appears to be an expedient way to increase traffic capacity in an urban network. However, it can produce unpleasant outcomes. When a traffic lane is narrowed, the width of a vehicle wheel track is reduced, implying that the moving wheels are restricted to a more compact space. Then, below the centreline of a wheel track, the number of high stress/strain will increase for a given demand of repetitive traffic loading. Thus, additional pavement damage is introduced. In this paper, a quantitative method for evaluating pavement damage due to narrowing lanes is presented for both flexible and rigid pavements. It is found that the decreasing of the lane width from 3.66 m (12 ft) to 3.35 m (11 ft) and 3.05 m (10 ft) may cause about 20 and 40% reduction in pavement fatigue life, respectively. Therefore, the reduction of pavement lane width in order to gain some operational benefits does not appear to be an intelligent choice.