Connection of private property to a public road for vehicular
access may involve various land use and engineering considerations
such as zoning, traffic generation, pavement thickness, drainage,
and roadway geometrics. In order to provide for proper government
review of these considerations, a person requesting access to a public
street may need to obtain the correct zoning, building permit, certificate
of occupancy, and/or driveway approval from the appropriate City/County
governmental agent or agencies. For the purposes of this manual, the
term "responsible authority" contained herein shall apply as indicated
below. The Henderson-Henderson County Planning Commission shall have
the final administrative authority for the access standards contained
herein.
A. City Engineer/County Engineer: responsible for approval of driveway
requests, and approval of site plans in regard to drainage, pavement
thickness, construction details, and construction inspection.
B. Henderson-Henderson County Planning Commission: responsible for issuance
of rezoning approvals (which may involve access issues) and administering
the subdivision and other appropriate regulations of the Planning
Commission.
C. City and County Codes Administrator: responsible for administering
the zoning, issuance of building permits, approval of site plans and
construction inspection.
D. City and County Board of Zoning Adjustment: responsible for issuance
of conditional use permits and zoning variances.
E. Evansville Urban Transportation Study: responsible for providing
technical assistance and reviewing major developments for transportation
impacts as requested by the City/County Engineer.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
ACCELERATION LANE
An auxiliary lane constructed as part of the driveway which
enables egressing vehicles to increase speed prior to entering the
through traffic stream.
ACCESS
The vehicular movement to and from an abutting property to
a street; includes only that part of the driveway that lies within
the established right-of-way limits of the street.
ACCESS, CONTROL OF
The limiting of access from a street to the abutting property
through curb cut approvals and access management techniques, such
as auxiliary lanes.
ANNUAL AVERAGE DAILY TRAFFIC
The total twenty-four-hour traffic volume computed for an
annual average. The term is commonly abbreviated as "AADT."
APPROACH PAVEMENT
That portion connecting the edge of pavement of the public
roadway and the driveway; may include tapers for vehicle deceleration,
acceleration, turning, or other purposes supplementary to through
traffic movements.
CHANNELIZING ISLAND
An area intended to control vehicle movements or provide
a pedestrian refuge area.
CORNER CLEARANCE
The minimum dimension parallel to a street between the nearest
edge of pavement of an intersecting street and the nearest edge of
a driveway.
CURB CUT
A general term used to describe the opening along a curbed
section which vehicles use to ingress to or egress from a site.
DECELERATION LANE
An auxiliary lane constructed as part of the driveway which
is used by egressing vehicles to reduce speed prior to entering a
site. The lane also provides some vehicle storage.
DRIVEWAY
Every way or place not in the right-of-way of any public
road, and which is used for vehicular traffic.
FRONTAGE ROAD
A local street or road located parallel to an arterial highway
for service to abutting properties for the purpose of controlling
access on major streets.
PASSING BLISTER
An auxiliary lane constructed opposite of the driveway which
enables through traffic to maneuver around vehicles turning left into
a site.
PEAK HOUR
A term denoting the hour of highest vehicular flow. Peak
hour at a site may not correspond to overall peak vehicular flow on
adjacent streets.
PUBLIC ROAD, STREET OR HIGHWAY
A general term denoting a public way for purposes of vehicular
travel, including the entire area within the right-of-way.
RESPONSIBLE AUTHORITY
The local government agent or agencies responsible for review
and approval of proposed curb cuts or driveways.
RIGHT-OF-WAY
A general term denoting land, property, or interest therein,
acquired for or dedicated to public road purposes.
SIGHT DISTANCE
The length of public roadway visible to a driver. Sight distance
requirements for safe vehicle operation exist for all phases of vehicle
operation such as ingress, egress, horizontal and vertical curves,
and intersections.
TRAVELED WAY OR PORTION
The portion of the public road used for the movement of vehicles,
exclusive of shoulders and auxiliary lanes.
TRIP GENERATION
The number of vehicle trips produced by or attracted to a
specific site. Trip generation is a function of many factors such
as land use, business type and building size.
These procedures and requirements shall apply to all access
to public roads, with the exception of single-family residential driveway
connections. For single-family residential driveway connections, no
approval will be required. However, access approval is required for
entrances to single-family subdivisions.
A. No person, firm, corporation, or developer shall construct any driveway,
or approach connecting with any public roadway, nor shall any curb
along such roadway be cut or removed without approval from the responsible
authority in accordance with Section 20-24 of the Henderson City Code
and this manual. Any violation of the provisions in this manual shall
constitute a violation of the section cited above.
B. Any individual seeking driveway approval shall file his or her request
to access a public street with the City/County Engineer for review
by the responsible authority. The City/County Engineer shall review
these requests for compliance with the standards herein by reviewing
all applications for conditional use and building permits rezoning
applications and any other requests to change land use. In addition,
plans for alterations to development sites that could increase trip
generation or change internal traffic patterns affecting access to
the site shall also be reviewed by the City/County Engineer under
these standards. Based on this review, the City/County Engineer shall
be responsible for making all initial driveway determinations within
the allowable range of standards as provided in this manual. After
the review and a determination is made by the City/County Engineer,
requests that are outside of the allowable range of standards or otherwise
do not comply with this manual may be submitted for consideration
by the Henderson Planning Commission as the final authority for appeals
on access matters.
C. On state routes, an access permit must first be secured through the
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and must satisfy the requirements
continued in the Kentucky Permits Manual.
D. The owners or occupants of property abutting any public road shall
maintain and keep in repair all driveways, drainage structures, and
approaches between the back-of-curb or edge of pavement and right-of-way,
but no driveways or approaches shall be constructed or maintained
in a manner as to obstruct or interfere with the roadway, the traffic
thereon, or with any drain or ditch which has been constructed on
or which serves a roadway.
E. All work on driveways and approaches except routine maintenance such
as driveway sealing shall be done to the satisfaction of the responsible
authority, and the entire expense of constructing driveways and approaches
shall be borne by the person, firm, corporation, or developer to whom
such approval is given.
F. When any roadway is constructed or substantially improved, the construction
of all public road approaches, existing private approaches and drainage
structures required for roadway protection shall be included as a
part of the improvement of the roadway. The responsible authority
may require the changing of the location of any existing drives, in
the interest of safety to the motoring public, when the roadway is
constructed or reconstructed.
G. When there is a change in the type of business, land use, or off-street
parking requirements of an existing property, the adequacy of the
existing access will be reviewed by the responsible authority for
approval of existing driveway(s) or for determination of changes in
the location, design, or number of access points that are required.
H. The expense of relocation or replacement of any and all improvements
within the right-of-way shall be the sole responsibility of the individual
or firm requesting driveway approval.
I. Access drives and interior parking must be designed so that vehicles
will not be forced to stop on the public roadway due to congestion
of the driveway or parking lot. It will be the owner's responsibility
to examine alternatives for additional access to alleviate congestion
if traffic problems occur at the site on a frequent basis.
J. No entrance to which these standards apply shall be altered, relocated,
or remodeled without permission of the responsible authority.
K. The angle of any drive or approach shall be between 75° and 105°
unless otherwise approved by the responsible authority. For a curved
roadway section, the drive angle from the center line of the main
road to the center line of the driveway approach must be between 75°
and 105° from a tangent to the curve at the point of access.
L. When access to a public street is requested for a loading dock, then
there must be sufficient distance between the dock and right-of-way
to prevent encroachment on the street while parking or maneuvering.
M. The property owner shall remove as soon as possible any soil or other
material deposited upon a public roadway resulting from construction
or improvement of a driveway so as to provide for unobstructed traffic
flow.
N. Where the placement of a curb cut or driveway requires that construction
activities be performed within the public right-of-way, advanced warning
and traffic control shall be provided at the property owner's expense
in conformance with the current Manual on Uniform Traffic Control
Devices and any applicable standards adopted by the City/County of
Henderson.
O. The responsible authority reserves the right to remove or barricade
nonconforming access installations and charge all costs to the property
owner.
P. All access geometrics, including location, spacing, and auxiliary
lanes, shall be in accordance with the current Henderson City/County
Access Standards Manual and the Kentucky Permits Manual.
Included below are the design standards and common examples
of driveways and approaches. These standards will apply in the majority
of cases, since many combinations can be derived from each figure.
Additional standards which will be required are as follows:
A. Location of median openings (crossovers). Requests for private or
commercial median openings will not be approved unless the proposed
opening meets the minimum distance requirement, shown in Table 1, from an existing opening. Left-turn lanes will be required
for all new crossovers where the median is wide enough for construction
of the lane. It is the responsibility of the applicant to prove to
the satisfaction of the responsible authority that the location of
the crossover would not be detrimental to the safety of the motoring
public. (See Table 2.)
B. Continuous right-turn lane. A continuous right-turn lane is a combination
of a right-turn acceleration and deceleration lane that is extended
to serve several nearby driveways. It is useful on highway segments
where driveways cannot otherwise accommodate a large volume of right
turns at sufficient speeds to prevent queues from forming in the through
lanes. The advantages of this technique are that it significantly
reduces rear-end accidents by removing turning vehicles at higher
speeds and by eliminating right-turn queues in through lanes. A continuous
right-turn lane is warranted where volumes exceed 15,000 vehicles
per day (vpd), the right turn volume exceeds 20% of the total volume
of traffic traveling in one direction on a highway, development exceeds
60 driveways per mile, and speeds exceed 30 miles per hour (mph).
Figure 1 illustrates the typical application of this technique.
C. Compliance with other law. Approval of a driveway does not relieve
the requirement to obtain all other necessary approvals.
D. Location of traffic devices. No entrance on approach shall be located
or constructed so as to interfere with or prevent the proper location
of necessary highway signs or other traffic control devices.
E. Location of property line. No part of a driveway, including approach
radii, shall be constructed over a property line. This requirement
does not apply to joint driveways that are constructed with the written
approval of the adjoining property owner.
F. Drainage requirements. Any improvements authorized by the responsible
authority shall not interfere with drainage of the street or highway.
G. Minimum construction standards for driveways. The adopted driveway
standards and common examples are shown in Figures 2 through 5. Specified in the figures are the required driveway widths,
radii, and other design features. The standards contained in Figures
2 through 5 are designed to permit safe and efficient ingress and
egress of passenger cars, without impeding mainstream traffic flow.
At those sites which serve or rely on semitrailer combination trucks
for the delivery of merchandise or materials, the minimum driveway
radius shall be 40 feet.
The following sections present examples of additional access
management techniques for traffic control of various types of driveway
problems. These examples of access control techniques describe the
problems that can be corrected by the control, and they also present
specific warrants for their use. Since situations will vary according
to the traffic volume and roadway geometrics at a particular site,
these access control techniques will not provide a solution to all
access problems. However, they do provide possible solutions to some
of the more common types of problems encountered at driveway access
points.
A. Median channelization to prevent left turn maneuvers.
(1) This technique controls access on roadways by preventing left turns
in and out of driveways. These turns are restricted by channelizing
the medians on divided roadways to physically prevent vehicles from
crossing. This type of channelization is shown in Figures 9 and 10.
(2) This technique is warranted on multilane divided roadways with speeds
of 30 miles per hour to 45 miles per hour, traffic volumes greater
than 5,000 vehicles per day (vpd), and more than 30 driveways per
mile. This technique is warranted at driveways where safety problems
are caused by a small number of left-turn maneuvers. The prohibited
turning volume should not exceed 100 vehicles per day. This technique
may also be justified at sites that meet accident warrants.
B. Locate driveway opposite a three-leg intersection or driveway and
install signals where warranted.
(1) Where traffic signal warrants can be satisfied, this technique involves
locating a driveway opposite a three-leg intersection either during
the driveway approval process or by relocating an existing driveway.
Since traffic operations along an arterial are affected by the number
and location of driveways, interference to the traffic operations
should be reduced by constructing an additional driveway opposite
an existing intersection. As the number of access points on an arterial
decreases, the quality of traffic flow will generally improve. Due
to the greater separation between access points, a more efficient
progression speed for through vehicles should be achieved. The installation
of traffic signals helps to regulate vehicle speeds and controls the
turning movements.
(2) This technique is warranted on all types of roads where there is
enough frontage available to locate a driveway opposite a three-leg
intersection or driveway, or an existing driveway is being relocated,
the separation distance before relocation should be less than 300
feet. There should be a minimum of 30 driveway-to-driveway movements
during the peak hour, or 150 per day for a signalized location. The
cross-street volume should be greater than 1,000 vehicles per day
and the highway volume should not exceed 10,000 vehicles per day.
All traffic signal installations must meet the warrants in the Manual
on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.
C. Install channelizing island to prevent left-turn movements.
(1) This driveway design technique controls access by preventing left-turn
ingress and egress movements. The left-turn movements are prohibited
by a channelizing island in the driveway throat. Examples of this
technique are shown in Figures 11, 12, and 13.
(2) This control is warranted on undivided roads with speeds of 30 miles
per hour to 45 miles per hour, traffic volumes greater than 3,000
vehicles per day, and minimum driveway volumes of 1,000 vehicles per
day. The prohibited turns should number less than 100 vehicles per
day. High left-turn accident rates will also warrant this technique.
D. Install isolated median and deceleration lane to store left-turning
vehicles.
(1) The objective of this technique is to remove turning vehicles from
the through lanes at a major driveway. Improvements in the operation
of left turns result from the isolated median and deceleration lane
which stores the left-turning vehicles. This should reduce the frequency
and severity of rear-end accidents at the driveway. The frequency
of left-turn accidents should also be reduced because the turning
drivers are allowed additional perception time. An example of this
technique is shown in Figure 14.
(2) This control measure is warranted on all undivided roads. Typical
locations for this control would be on roads that have fewer than
30 driveways per mile, highway volumes greater than 10,000 vehicles
per day, and driveway volumes greater than 1,000 vehicles per day.
The left-turn volume should be a minimum of 100 vehicles per hour
(vph) during the peak period.
E. Install left-turn deceleration lane instead of right-angle crossover.
(1) This median treatment facilitates left-turn access to a driveway
by providing a left-turn deceleration lane in place of a right-angle
crossover. This technique is similar to the previous one, since the
objective of this method is also removing turning vehicles from the
through lanes. This reduces the frequency and severity of rear-end
and left-turn accidents. This technique should only be considered
where a median opening exists and there is sufficient median width
for a deceleration lane. This is shown in Figure 15.
(2) The potential locations for this application include all multilane
divided highways with median widths of 14 feet or greater. A median
opening must exist to allow for turning maneuvers. The development
surrounding the type of installation should have fewer than 45 driveways
per mile with major driveways or intersections 1/4 mile to 1/2 mile
apart. The highway speed should exceed 35 miles per hour, the highway
volume should exceed 10,000 vehicles per day, and the driveway volume
should be a minimum of 1,000 vehicles per day. Left turns should be
approximately 10% of the peak period traffic volume.
F. Increase storage capacity of an existing left-turn deceleration lane.
(1) The purpose of this access management technique is to increase the
storage capacity of a left-turn deceleration lane when the storage
capacity becomes insufficient to accommodate the turning volume. The
design of this technique consists of two alternatives. These alternatives
consist of lengthening an existing storage lane where sufficient median
length is available or widening the highway to facilitate left-turn
maneuvers from two lanes. These alternatives are shown in Figures
16 and 17.
(2) The potential locations for this improvement are all multilane divided
highways with existing deceleration lanes that have insufficient storage
lengths. The highway section should have fewer than 45 driveways per
mile with major driveways or intersections 1/4 mile to 1/2 mile apart.
The driveway volume should exceed 1,000 vehicles per day and the highway
volume should be a minimum of 10,000 vehicles per day.
G. Install an additional exit lane on driveway.
(1) This method of access management involves construction of an additional
driveway exit lane to better facilitate egress movements. The left-
and right-turn egress movements are made more efficiently since drivers
are not delayed by egress vehicles waiting to turn in the opposite
direction. The egress capacity of the driveway is increased by the
construction of this lane, which should result in a decrease in total
driveway delay. An example of an additional lane for a driveway is
shown in Figure 18.
(2) This technique can be used for all highway types that have driveways
that are congested due to all egress movements using a single lane.
The highway speeds should be 30 miles per hour or greater, and the
highway volumes should exceed 5,000 vehicles per day. The driveway
volume should exceed 1,000 vehicles per day, with at least 500 of
these vehicles being egressing vehicles.
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials,
A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets, Washington,
D.C., 1984.
Dia, Hussin F., and Fricker, Jon D., Access Control for Local
Roads and Streets in Small Cities and Rural Areas, Highway Extension
and Research Project for Indiana Counties and Cities, West Lafayette,
Indiana, 1986.
Evansville Urban Transportation Study, Access Standards Manual,
Evansville, Indiana, 1988.
Flora, John W., et al, Access Management for Streets and Highways,
U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C., 1982.
Indiana Department of Highways, Driveway Permit Handbook, Indianapolis,
Indiana, 1986.
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Permits Manual Frankfort, Kentucky,
1988.
Owensboro Urbanized Area, Access Management Manual, Owensboro,
Kentucky.
Stover, Virgil G. and Koepke, Frank J., Transportation and Land
Development, Institute of Transportation Engineers, Washington, D.C.,
1988.