1999 Eugene Arterial & Collector Street Plan

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Length of Street is another important criterion to consider in a street's classification. The longer a street is, the more likely it is that the street will function at a higher classification. This is due to the fact that longer (continuous) streets allow travelers to move between distant attractors with a limited number of turns, stops, and other distractions that discourage them from using streets of lower classification. Length of a given street segment, while not the same as trip length for the average trip using that street, is seen as strongly correlated with trip length-which is itself an indicator of~the extent of mobility pro- vided by the street. To illustrate, state highways that traverse Eugene-including Highway 99 and Highway 126 (via 6th-7th and West 11th) are long, continuous streets that carry proportionately longer trips than a street like Sth Avenue or Valley River Drive. Therefore these longer streets gener- allysupply ahigher level of mobility as compared to other streets that are providing more access. •~5pacing of Streets is another criterion that relates to provision of mobility and/or access. Streets of higher classification usually have larger traffic carrying capacity and fewer impediments to travel. Fewer facilities are needed to serve the traffic mobility demands of the community due to their efficiency in moving traffic. Generally, this means that there are fewer streets of higher classification so there will be larger distances between them. Therefore, the further a street is from a higher classification street, the more likely it is that the street will function at a similar classification (if the street length, degree of connectivity, and design allow it to serve that purpose.) Streets of lower classification are needed to provide access to abutting land. In order to do this, they must be spaced more closely and there must be many more of them. It is considered most desirable to have a network of multiple lower classification streets feeding into progressively fewer higher classification streets. _ Connectivity is the final attribute used to deter- mine street classification. Streets that provide easy connections (or connectivity) to other roads of higher classification are likely to function at a ~ similar classification. This can be attributed to the ease of movement perceived by travelers who desire to make that connection. For ex- ample, state highways are generally intercon- nected with one another, to provide a continu- ous network of high-order roadways that can be used to travel into and through urban areas. Urban minor arterials provide a similar intercon- nected network at the city-wide level. By con- trast, collector streets often connect local neigh- borhood streets with one or two arterial streets, thus helping provide connectivity at the neigh- borhood scale rather than acity-wide level. Local streets also provide a degree of connectiv- ity as a necessary component of property access. However, the street lengths, traffic control, and/ or street geometry are usually composed so that anyone but local travelers would consider the route inconvenient, except for access to the immediate neighborhood. Eugene Street Classi~ication5 Appendix C includes the Street Classification Map, along with a tabular listing of each street section. Appendix D is the Street Classification Matrix, containing the numerical ratings for the five criteria discussed above, for each street segment. Appendix E summarizes the process by which these five criteria have been used to develop a proposed Street Classifi- cation Map for Eugene. 35