Road diet on a two lane road that runs though the center of town?

[kalvado]

I sometimes wonder whether the impatience of the average rude driver makes "road diets" counterproductive at times. Compare this 2023 post—"road diet" Street View image with this 2014 Street View image of roughly the same spot. The "road diet" was imposed sometime between August 2014 and August 2017; VDOT said that, among other things, the traffic counts were too low to justify two lanes in each direction. People who live at that end of the area complained bitterly that the "road diet" "makes it too hard to pass slowpokes" (the speed limit is 35), and I've seen quite a few people passing in that median area between the double yellow lines because they think they have a right to go 55 mph. That's a safety issue because, among other reasons, there's a T-intersection, a bus stop, and an uncontrolled crosswalk just over the crest of the next hill.

Meanwhile, Urbanists and safety advocates see that as a feature because it forces everyone to drive the speed of the slowest driver.

I mean, if you glued the cars to the pavement so they couldn't move at all, that would certainly increase safety. It kind of misses the point of having a car to begin with, though.

But then it would encourage more people to use transit!

If there is something remotely resembling usable transit to begin with.