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Yes, traffic jams lead to lower speeds and fewer bad accidents.

Less lanes, less cars, lower speeds, less accidents. Great for pedestrians and bikes, a major pain for people living in the area. The road is a state route! They let them cut it from 4 lanes to 2 with one turn lane. To drive a one mile stretch on a busy day takes a while. People then drive through the neighborhoods, increasing traffic on residential streets.

They did that to a main street in a nearby suburb. Nice in the summer time since there is a lot of pedestrian and bike traffic. Lots of action for stores.

January? Not so good. No pedestrians, no bikes, no walk-ins for the stores. Traffic jams due to 2-lanes, still major pain for people living in the area.

On size fits all won’t work in about half the country where winter happens.

There was a proposal on another nearby wider road for raised medians, which would narrow where turns are needed. This didn’t happen due to ‘budget’ problems. I would hope saner minds realized that forcing cars wanting to turn into a limited number of defined short turn lanes would have been a disaster.

If the turn lane can hold 3 cars and 6 cars want to turn, the whole through lane is blocked. People either wait, or change lanes. More frustration and accidents. They eventually avoid that lane altogether, thereby narrowing the road by a lane. Turn lanes without raised medians allow drivers to adjust how many cars can fit into the turn lane at a time.