Capacity of Genesee Avenue

Between Decoro Street and SR-52, Genesee Avenue is classified as a "four lane major street." Accordingly, the threshold of acceptable segment LOS is 35,000 ADT. However, it is clear that Genesee has capacity significantly beyond that of generic four lane majors, as a comparison with a typical four lane major street, Governor Drive, illustrates. Genesee Avenue has a much lower density of signalized intersections (the average distance between signals is 0.46 miles; compare with 0.21 miles on Governor Drive), and fewer curb cuts in general.

The greatest limitation to the capacity of Genesee Avenue is the bottleneck at its Governor Drive intersection. Genesee Avenue may be likened to a wide pipe which has a nasty clog. By removing the clog, the pipe can achieve its true capacity.

There are two basic ways in which intersection performance can be improved. One is to widen the intersection, providing an extra NB and SB through lane on Genesee at Governor Drive. Traffic is a bit like water, and it is a matter of common experience that water flows faster through a smaller aperture. Widening the intersection will allow more slow-moving traffic to get across during the green phase for Genesee through moves, and as the road narrows down to two lanes the flow speed increases.

The second way is to grade separate, which effectively allows cars to pass through (or over) each other. Research has shown that, beyond a certain volume, it is increasingly more effective to grade separate than to widen the intersection. The reason is that with intersection widening, all vehicles must still stop on red, while grade separation permits continuous flow.