A gateway treatment is a traffic calming installation designed to slow traffic entering a lower-speed environment.  A gateway treatment may be as elaborate as a series of bulbouts, landscaping, raised crosswalks, etc. used at the entrance of a residential district, or as simple as special lane markings on a rural highway as it enters a town center.  In all applications, such treatments signal drivers that they are entering a lower speed street segment, where they should reduce their speed, exercise more caution, and expect slower traffic, cross-traffic, turning vehicles, bicyclists, and/or pedestrians. 

Arterial to Residential Street Treatments

Typically, gateway treatments in urban areas are used to slow higher speed arterial traffic entering a lower speed residential area.  Treatments may consist of raised medians, traffic circles, narrowed lanes, bulb-outs, extensive landscaping, public art, bollards, or special lighting fixtures or signage, or some combination of these. 

Mulry Square in Manhattan's West Village is an excellent example of an intersection which has been made far safer with the addition of gateway treatments at several corners within a single intersection.  The treatments consist of road narrowing, bulb-outs, bollards, and high-visibility crosswalk striping (see photo at right).  This design was chosen with the help of the non-profit design firm, Project for Public Spaces , which specializes in creating attractive public spaces accommodating all users of the street and adjacent land uses.

In San Diego, California, a dozen of the retail avenues in the city's older "streetcar suburbs" are distinguished by gateway treatments in the form of large, unique identification signs, mounted above the street or in raised medians (see photo).  In most cases, these signs succeed in communicating that a driver is entering a unique area, and help slow traffic. 

Gateway treatments may also be short raised medians designed to slow traffic entering or exiting a particular leg of an intersection.  Gateway treatments induce slowing only the immediate area, and should be combined with other traffic calming treatments further away to maintain the desired speed.

Rural Highway Applications

A very useful application of gateway treatments is the transition zone between a high-speed rural highway and the entrance to a rural town.  Without an effective gateway treatment, such zones constitute significant safety hazards.  Treatments in this zone include those mentioned above, but also painted legends and lane striping that give drivers a perception of narrowing and excessive speed requiring greater caution.  For example, in Roland, Iowa, chevrons were painted the width of the travel lane, and spaced gradually closer together to give the perception of speeding up.  At the other end of town, lane striping produced a narrowing effect, with "25 mph" legends painted in the lane.  Both treatments caused slowing.

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ALSO ON THE LIVABLE STREETS NETWORK

• http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/02/19/dot-pledged-pedestrian-safety-fixes-for-third-avenue-by-2006/
  

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REFERENCES

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[1] http://www.pps.org/transportation/info/transportation_projects/mulry_square

[2]

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PICTURE REFERENCES

Pictures are cited in the order they appear above. Please keep citation style consistent.

[1] Streetsblog. http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/02/19/dot-pledged-pedestrian-safety-fixes-for-third-avenue-by-2006/

[2] Project for Public Spaces

[3] Project for Public Spaces

[4] Photo courtesy of Andy Hamilton

[5] Photo courtesy of Andy Hamilton

FURTHER READING

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