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Rat running (also known as rodent running or cut-through driving) is the practice by motorists of using residential side streets or any unintended short cut such as a parking lot, delivery service lane or cemetery road instead of the intended main road in urban or suburban areas.
Rat running is a tactic used to avoid heavy traffic and long delays at traffic signals or other obstacles, even where there are traffic calming measures to discourage its use or laws against taking certain routes. Rat runs are frequently taken by motorists familiar with the local geography.
Rat running is controversial. When traffic is especially heavy on a highway or main road, rat-running vehicles may cause another traffic jam on the rat-run streets, along with accompanying problems such as collisions, pollution from exhaust, and road rage. It is sometimes opposed by residents on the affected streets, as they may regard it as a disturbance of their peace. [1] [2] Sometimes, it causes "house price fears". [3] Authorities may try to prevent rat running by installing traffic calming devices, such as speed humps, traffic circles, and rumble strips, by making some streets one-way, or by blocking off certain intersections. Some places, including Montgomery County, Maryland; Maryland Heights, Missouri; and parts of Minneapolis, Minnesota, have banned turning onto certain streets during rush hours to prevent rat running. [4]
Motorists familiar with an area sometimes use side streets or other smaller roads that run parallel to the main road. They are generally[ according to whom? ] local people who know these streets and the pros and cons of using them as alternatives to the main road. Use of satellite navigation apps with real-time traffic information can also be used by motorists unfamiliar with an area to route around congested main roads via side streets. [5]
In some places, motorists avoid stopping at a red light by turning onto a side street or into a parking lot to bypass it.
In some countries,[ where? ] red lights can be avoided by turning right on red (or left in drive-on-the-left countries), making a U-turn, and then turning right (or left) again back on to the street on which the motorist was traveling. This may require less time than waiting for the light to turn green.[ citation needed ]
Some motorists exit and then re-enter a freeway or motorway at the same junction, or use lanes designated for exiting and merging, or cut across unpaved dividers to frontage roads, to pass stationary traffic.
Some large streets are separated from parallel small residential streets only by a small strip where homeowners park their vehicles. These streets can be used to bypass traffic jams.
Many communities[ where? ] combat rat running by installing traffic calming features such as chicanes, speed tables, speed cushions, curb extensions, cobbled sections, hidden law enforcement and various other measures. Other communities install physical barriers that completely block through-traffic along routes prone to rat running.
One of the most extensive uses of this strategy is found in Berkeley, California, where dozens of concrete barriers throughout the city block shortcuts, while still allowing cycling. [6] In Northern Virginia, shortcuts are discouraged by the construction of dead end streets, communities with no outlet, and winding roads designed to confuse, making navigation through the neighborhoods more difficult and time-consuming. [4]
The Netherlands makes extensive use of raising bollards to eliminate through traffic while allowing pedestrians, cyclists, residents and local businesses to get through. [7]
Some US cities (such as St. Louis) make extensive use of mid-block barriers across residential streets, such as rows of planters, curbs, or gates, designed to block the passage of vehicles while simultaneously allowing pedestrians through. This serves to deter rat-running while maintaining a sense of continuity for pedestrians, making the streets more pedestrian-friendly.
As of the 21st century, officials in a number of US states including Georgia and Maryland, [4] some smaller US jurisdictions, and some parts of the United Kingdom have passed or tried to pass laws restricting rat-running in certain communities to maintain peace and privacy for residents. [8] [9]
When a major event draws a large volume of traffic, local police sometimes monitor or block secondary roads to prevent motorists from the event crowd from using such streets to avoid the traffic. [10]
In the United Kingdom, the Low Traffic Neighbourhood scheme is intended to discourage rat-running though certain residential areas, using a combination of filtered permeability (for example, using barriers, planters or other modal filters) and traffic calming measures. [11]
Traffic comprises pedestrians, vehicles, ridden or herded animals, trains, and other conveyances that use public ways (roads/sidewalks) for travel and transportation.
A roundabout, a rotary and a traffic circle are all, with certain distinctions between them, a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.
An intersection or an at-grade junction is a junction where two or more roads converge, diverge, meet or cross at the same height, as opposed to an interchange, which uses bridges or tunnels to separate different roads. Major intersections are often delineated by gores and may be classified by road segments, traffic controls and lane design.
Traffic calming uses physical design and other measures to improve safety for motorists, car drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. It has become a tool to combat speeding and other unsafe behaviours of drivers in the neighbourhoods. It aims to encourage safer, more responsible driving and potentially reduce traffic flow. Urban planners and traffic engineers have many strategies for traffic calming, including narrowed roads and speed humps. Such measures are common in Australia and Europe, but less so in North America. Traffic calming is a calque of the German word Verkehrsberuhigung – the term's first published use in English was in 1985 by Carmen Hass-Klau.
A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable surface such as tarmac, concrete, cobblestone or brick. Portions may also be smoothed with asphalt, embedded with rails, or otherwise prepared to accommodate non-pedestrian traffic.
Road traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured. Typical road users include pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, vehicle passengers, and passengers of on-road public transport.
A dead end, also known as a cul-de-sac, or a no through road or no exit road, is a street with only one combined inlet and outlet.
A chicane is a serpentine curve in a road, added by design rather than dictated by geography. Chicanes add extra turns and are used both in motor racing and on roads and streets to slow traffic for safety. For example, one form of chicane is a short, shallow S-shaped turn that requires the driver to turn slightly left and then slightly right to continue on the road, requiring the driver to reduce speed. The word chicane is derived from the French verb chicaner, which means "to create difficulties" or "to dispute pointlessly", "quibble", which is also the root of the English noun chicanery. The Spanish verb chicanear also means "to use trickery".
A curb extension is a traffic calming measure which widens the sidewalk for a short distance. This reduces the crossing distance and allows pedestrians and drivers to see each other when parked vehicles would otherwise block visibility. The practice of banning car parking near intersections is referred to as daylighting the intersection.
Speed bumps are a class of traffic calming devices that use vertical deflection to slow motor-vehicle traffic in order to improve safety conditions. Variations include the speed hump, speed cushion, and speed table.
Jaywalking is the act of pedestrians walking in or crossing a roadway if that act contravenes traffic regulations. The term originated in the United States as a derivation of the phrase jay-drivers, people who drove horse-drawn carriages and automobiles on the wrong side of the road, before taking its current meaning. Jaywalking was coined as the automobile arrived in the street in the context of the conflict between pedestrian and automobiles, more specifically the nascent automobile industry.
A jughandle is a type of ramp or slip road that changes the way traffic turns left at an at-grade intersection. Instead of a standard left turn being made from the left lane, left-turning traffic uses a ramp on the right side of the road. In a standard forward jughandle or near-side jughandle, the ramp leaves before the intersection, and left-turning traffic turns left off of it rather than the through road; right turns are also made using the jughandle. In a reverse jughandle or far-side jughandle, the ramp leaves after the intersection, and left-turning traffic loops around to the right and merges with the crossroad before the intersection.
One-way traffic is traffic that moves in a single direction. A one-way street is a street either facilitating only one-way traffic, or designed to direct vehicles to move in one direction. One-way streets typically result in higher traffic flow as drivers may avoid encountering oncoming traffic or turns through oncoming traffic. Residents may dislike one-way streets due to the circuitous route required to get to a specific destination, and the potential for higher speeds adversely affecting pedestrian safety. Some studies even challenge the original motivation for one-way streets, in that the circuitous routes negate the claimed higher speeds.
The street hierarchy is an urban planning technique for laying out road networks that exclude automobile through-traffic from developed areas. It is conceived as a hierarchy of roads that embeds the link importance of each road type in the network topology. Street hierarchy restricts or eliminates direct connections between certain types of links, for example residential streets and arterial roads, and allows connections between similar order streets or between street types that are separated by one level in the hierarchy. By contrast, in many regular, traditional grid plans, as laid out, higher order roads are connected by through streets of both lower order levels. An ordering of roads and their classification can include several levels and finer distinctions as, for example, major and minor arterials or collectors.
A boom barrier, also known as a boom gate, is a bar, or pole pivoted to allow the boom to block vehicular or pedestrian access through a controlled point. Typically, the tip of a boom gate rises in a vertical arc to a near vertical position. Boom gates, especially manually operated ones, are often counterweighted, so the pole is easily tipped. Boom gates are often paired either end to end, or offset appropriately to block traffic in both directions. Some boom gates also have a second arm which hangs 300 to 400 mm below the upper arm when lowered, to increase approach visibility, and which hangs on links, so it lies flat with the main boom as the barrier is raised. Some barriers also feature a pivot roughly half way, where as the barrier is raised, the outermost half remains horizontal, with the barrier resembling an upside-down L when raised.
A curb, or kerb, is the edge where a raised sidewalk or road median/central reservation meets a street or other roadway.
A side road is a minor highway typically leading off a main road. A side road may be so minor as to be uncategorized with a road number.
Cycling infrastructure is all infrastructure cyclists are allowed to use. Bikeways include bike paths, bike lanes, cycle tracks, rail trails and, where permitted, sidewalks. Roads used by motorists are also cycling infrastructure, except where cyclists are barred such as many freeways/motorways. It includes amenities such as bike racks for parking, shelters, service centers and specialized traffic signs and signals. The more cycling infrastructure, the more people get about by bicycle.
A shared-use path, mixed-use path or multi-use pathway is a path which is "designed to accommodate the movement of pedestrians and cyclists". Examples of shared-use paths include sidewalks designated as shared-use, bridleways and rail trails. A shared-use path typically has a surface that is asphalt, concrete or firmly packed crushed aggregate. Shared-use paths differ from cycle tracks and cycle paths in that shared-use paths are designed to include pedestrians even if the primary anticipated users are cyclists.
Terminology related to road transport—the transport of passengers or goods on paved routes between places—is diverse, with variation between dialects of English. There may also be regional differences within a single country, and some terms differ based on the side of the road traffic drives on. This glossary is an alphabetical listing of road transport terms.