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Raised Medians <br />Design Guidelines <br />1) Arterial and collector streets may have a <br />raised median area to decrease the potential for <br />accidents, restrict turning movements, limit land <br />access, furnish an aesthetic separation between <br />opposing traffic, encourage lower vehicle <br />speeds, provide a refuge area for pedestrians or <br />vehicles, increase the efficiency and capacity of <br />the street, and provide space for tree and land- <br />scape plantings. <br />2) Medians can be used as part of an overall <br />corridor access management strategy to reduce <br />vehicle conflicts, increase capacity, and reduce <br />accidents. <br />3) Ensure that U-turns can be negotiated at <br />downstream intersections or median breaks <br />when medians are used for access management. <br />4) Wide streets can present an impediment to <br />pedestrian crossings. Pedestrian refuge medians and/ <br />or landscaped medians with pedestrian refuges <br />should be designed into arterial and collector street <br />intersections with more than three lanes, whenever <br />possible, to reduce crossing distances and improve <br />safety and comfort for pedestrians. <br />5) Medians that function to limit turns, limit land <br />access, or reduce mid-block accidents can be <br />relatively narrow and still provide the necessary <br />channelization. <br />6) On streets with constrained right-of-way <br />where it is desirable to provide a median for <br />access management, pedestrian refuge, or <br />aesthetic purposes, consider reducing the <br />62 <br />number of travel lanes in each direction, or the <br />width of the lanes. <br />7) Medians should be used in conjunction with <br />major driveway consolidations. <br />Medians can be relatively narrow and still provide <br />their intended funcCion <br />8) Medians should be used for access manage- <br />ment on main corridors and on streets with <br />heavy traffic volumes to improve capacity and <br />distribute traffic to side streets and to parking. <br />9) Coordinate placement and design of medians <br />to accommodate maintenance operations (such <br />as street light maintenance, utility work, etc.) <br />and to insure adequate operating space for fire <br />and emergency medical equipment. <br />10) Medians at critical intersections can have a <br />specialized dropped, low curb where emergency <br />responders require specialized access. <br />11) Landscaped medians are used to provide an <br />aesthetic separation between travel lanes and <br />must provide adequate room for tree root <br />growth. The width of landscape medians is <br />variable, depending on the varieties of trees and <br />shrubs planted in the median. (See Figure 11) <br />A landscaped median on Terry Street <br />