A Summary of the Economic Impacts of Raised Medians in Utah: Fid-Bau Portal

A Summary of the Economic Impacts of Raised Medians in Utah

Riffkin, Matt / Allen, Charles / Baker, Michael / Schultz, Grant G. / Kergaye, Cameron

Raised medians offer a departure from more traditional two-way left turn lanes typically built on collector and arterial streets and can offer advantages in terms of safety, capacity, and aesthetics. At the same time, individual business owners often oppose raised medians due to fear of business loss. This paper summarizes research on the effects of raised medians on retail sales in Utah before and after the installation of raised medians. Sales analysis was also performed for corresponding control corridors in which a similar roadway project was completed that did not include the installation of a raised median. For all of the corridors in which raised medians were constructed, there was an increase in corridor-area retail sales and sales per square foot. Analysis showed that in every case there was no evidence of a negative impact on corridor sales due to the raised median installation. A business impact survey was administrated to qualitatively evaluate the perceived impacts of each road project in front of individual businesses. Business owners on corridors, where the project included the installation of a raised median, typically perceived the actual results of the project more negatively than corridors, where the project did not install a raised median.