A stroad is a type of thoroughfare that is a mix between a street and a road.
Coined by American civil engineer and urban planner Charles Marohn in 2011, a stroad is a bad combination of two types of vehicular pathways: it is both part street & part road.
The terms street and road are not interchangeable, they actually mean two types of paths designed for two different types of travel. According to Marohn, a quick definition of the difference between a street and a road is:
STREET: "a complex environment where life in the city happens"; both pedestrians and cars are present and buildings are close to the sidewalk for easy accessibility, there are many property entrances/exits to and from the street, typically with spaces for temporary parking/delivery vehicles; streets are present at destinations, designed for human scale, typically narrow and with minimal speeds. [Think Main Street]
ROAD: "high-speed connection between two places"; has wide lanes and limited entrances and exits, lanes are generally straight or have gentle curves and are meant to move people quickly and efficiently from one destination to the other in the quickest time. The space surrounding roads is clear in case of an accident. [Think Highway]
The easiest way to describe a stroad is any road where drivers typically travel between 20-50 mph. - Small Towns
In his commentary, Marohn states that stroads do not function well as either a street or a road. He explains that a stroad attempts to function as a high-speed road, but with the many entrances/exits of a street. This poor combination lacks safety features & has lots of points of contact, thus potential conflict.
Stroads try to be "all things to all people" but ends up failing in every way as a result. Stroads are unsafe for pedestrians & bikers, expensive to maintain & diminish foot traffic for businesses. Stroads also result in a highly car-dependant town.
Not Just Bikes' YouTube channel goes in depth about stroads and if you really want to get a good understanding of how and why we have them and what their impact is, plus a few examples of what can be done instead, check out their eye-opening video on the topic.
Stroads cover our American landscapes, from large metropolitan cities to small towns all across the US. They were originally designed to move traffic quickly, but no one actually moves quickly at all. Most travelers are trying to get somewhere fast, but with all of the traffic coming in and out of the “road”, they spend a good bit of time slowing down for the entry/exit of others and waiting at lights. He and others believe this is why most stroads should be restored back to either a street or a road.
The 2018 report from its Vision Zero Coalition suggested that the problem with stroads was that they gave off a false sense that drivers could drive at dangerously fast speeds.
Marohn states, "While many engineers have tried, it is impossible to make a stroad safe." According to Marohn, the problem with stroads is that engineering codes tend to emphasize speed and traffic flow rather than safety and pedestrians. This is why Beaufort County Traffic & Transportation Engineering Department states: "Most drivers drive at a speed they consider reasonable and comfortable regardless of the posted speed limit. “Before and after” studies have shown that there is no significant change in speeds following the posting of a revised speed limit." (See all of their Myths & Facts here.) So, it's not as simple as lowering the speed limit on a stroad to make it more "pedestrian friendly".
There is an economic downside to stroads as well. When breaking down the real cost of towns and cities building stroads, Strong Towns explains that the short-term and long-term economic benefits of having streets far outweigh building stroads. They give five key areas here in an article where they point out that both the initial cost and the maintenance of stroads are more expensive, stroads don't make good use of land and they generate very little tax revenue.
One interesting point they make is that many of the buildings along a stroad are less versatile and able for reuse. For example, gas stations, fast food joints, big box stores, and strip malls are hard to repurpose, leaving them often abandoned, useless, eyesores when they go out of business. Traditional street buildings are easy to put a new business in and businesses have been doing it for generations.
Strong Towns also has an an article that explains why "walkable" streets show the best ROI and have better tax productivity than auto-oriented places. This is critical to an area like Port Royal as land continues to be bought up and developed at rapid rates. When comparing how much tax revenue is produced per acre in different areas, Urban3 has consistently found that "compact, walkable places produce far more tax value per acre than auto-oriented places—and that holds true in communities across America." Read the complete article here and check out the telling 3-D graphs.
Ok, so we know Stroads are the devil. Now what?
Just knowing what they are is a big step in the right direction. Making better choices for our towns and cities will take a long time to implement and will take changing the way we look at our roads as a whole. Since the pandemic, we have a new appreciation and value of community and the truth is, we love walkable cities.
Strong Towns gives some beautiful examples of towns that have corrected stroads and turned them back into streets. Their fantastic case study of seven cities shows us how they did it. Lancaster, California is a stunning example of what can be done with vision in as little as 9 months (and, of course, funding).
So there is hope, but there are a lot of involved people to make changes like Lancaster possible. We have a beautiful community with a very active population, so it is pretty special to see things moving in the right direction and projects like the Spanish Moss Trail happening and the sidewalks being added in Port Royal.
Now that you know what a stroad is, you'll be able to point them out to all of your friends. And, when you get aggravated that the traffic is so bad and it is taking forever to get to Lady's Island, just know that you're most likely suppose to be on a street, not a road. Or maybe a road and not a street. Who knows? But what you are on is neither!
Want to learn more about Stroads and what can be done about them? Check out these great resources:
Strong Towns: https://www.strongtowns.org/
Not Just Bikes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0intLFzLaudFG-xAvUEO-A
SCDOT Public Involvement Portal: https://www.scdot.org/projects/public-involvement-portal.aspx#navbar5
Beaufort County Traffic Operations: https://www.beaufortcountysc.gov/traffic-operations
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