Access Management Policy 2013 - Kansas Department of ...

KDOT Access Management Policy
2.4.1 Access management and retail
Retail businesses have traditionally believed that more access is better. Retailers worry that if it is
hard for a potential customer to get to them, the customer will go elsewhere. As a result, retailers
prefer to have access from a major arterial rather than a local street, with two driveways rather than
one. When access management calls for fewer driveways, retail businesses can feel threatened.
However, research has shown that access management can improve a site’s accessibility.
Several studies have shown that the number of driveways to a site has minor influence on a
customer’s decision to shop, especially when compared to the total travel time required to get to the
site. Instead, factors such as the customer base, otherwise known as market area, are critical to
business success. Market areas are determined by travel time and income levels. Although the
average size of market area varies by business type, market area decreases as travel time increases.
If a customer has to spend excess time traveling along a congested corridor to and from a specific
business, the customer will find a similar business with shorter travel time. This relationship is
illustrated in Figure 2-8. A reduction in the average travel speed of 30 percent will result in more
than a 45-percent reduction in market area. As customer travel time increases due to lower speeds,
congestion, and traffic signal
Figure 2-8. Affect of travel speed reduction on market area
delays, the retail market area
shrinks.
Access management strategies
assist retail businesses by
decreasing customer travel
time, making travel to and
from the business convenient,
and increasing roadway
capacity.
The primary objective of
access management is to
locate the access points so
they will provide access
without reducing arterial
Source: Florida Department of Transportation
performance. In Lenexa,
Kansas, the 87th Street
Project between Pflumm Road and US 69 implemented access management through the corridor.
Prior to the project, the 87th Street corridor was congested and difficult to navigate—many
shoppers avoided the area because of it. The 87th Street Project implemented access management
techniques such as raised medians; left-in, right-in, and right-out intersections; and consolidated
access points. Businesses in the corridor were tentative about such changes and worried they would
result in the loss of more customers. Today, those businesses are thriving and new businesses have
developed along the corridor. Travelers surveyed remark about the ease of travel through the
corridor and lack of congestion. Customers are drawn to shop in the area because it is easy to
access a wide range of businesses. Access management techniques improved the economic vitality
of the corridor by improving traffic flow and accessibility for customers.
2-8 | P age | January 2013 Chapter 2—What is access management