World-Class Congestion: North Carolina, Charlotte Among Worst in the Nation Study Says
A national study for the Reason Foundation ranks North Carolina the fourth worst state in the nation for urban interstate congestion. Only New Jersey, Minnesota and California have more urban interstate congestion than North Carolina does according to the study, which was done by David Hartgen, a retired UNCC professor.
The world-class congestion on Charlotte's interstates no doubt figures heavily into the state data. The Texas Transportation Institute currently ranks Charlotte the second most congested medium-sized city in the nation behind Austin, Texas.
And the way things are going, it will only get worse.
Local and state leaders don't have a serious, concrete plan to deal with congestion on our roads, despite the more than a million additional people we expect to move to the region by 2030. What plans they do have don't have a significant funding source of any kind. And congestion mitigation isn't the top goal of these plans, which do almost nothing to address the worst bottlenecks in the county on a consistent basis.
Sure, they're building light rail. But even the Charlotte Observer admits that light rail won't reduce congestion.
At Monday's Charlotte City Council meeting, council members once again approved this pathetic list of local projects that the Mecklenburg-Union Metropolitan Planning Organization (MUMPO) is requesting funding from the state for. It's essentially the same list the state didn't fund last year.
You almost have to wonder, reading the list, if the city and other regional members of MUMPO are deliberately trying to avoid projects that might reduce congestion.
The biggest project on list is the $150 million Monroe connector which will join I-485 and US-601. Only a tiny part of that project is in Mecklenburg, and it will have little real impact on congestion here, Hartgen said in an interview Tuesday.
Aside from two projects that will widen Independence Boulevard if they are ever funded and the widening of Catawba Avenue between Jetton Road and NC-73, most of the rest of the projects will have little or no impact on congestion. Many projects are more economic development oriented than congestion-oriented and target areas that don't have congestion problems. They include: $6.8 million for an extension of City Boulevard that the big box store IKEA wants, $30 million for the widening of Freedom Drive between Little Rock Road and I-485 (which fits with the city's goal of redeveloping the Freedom corridor) and $36.3 million for work on Airport Entrance Road, which isn't exactly congested.
None of the county's worst traffic bottlenecks made the list. The list does include HOV lanes for carpoolers on I-77, but with carpooling on the decline nationally and other local HOV lanes carrying too little traffic to make a dent in congestion, Hartgen says the HOVs are a waste of money.
Tara keep up the good work, digging up the facts and blasting the uniformed and the purposefully misinformed. I know you aren;t political, but my dream ticket in about 10 years would be Ann Coulter/Tara Sevatius!
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Unfortunately, congestion is a fact of life. More people plus more cars equals more congestion. You cannot pave your way or rail your way out of it. Need proof? Find me one city in the US that has done either? NY, London, Boston and DC have great train systems, but congestion is awful. Atlanta, Los Angeles, and San Diego have incredible multi-lane freeways, but congestion remains.
You can gripe about a lack of plans for congestion all you like. We don't have any good models to solving congestion. Light rail, toll roads, and road widening all have demonstrably failed to curb congestion.
Given that, simple strategies to cope with it can be implemented at the individual level. For instance, I try to live as close as possible to work. Another strategy is to tele-commute. Unfortunately, most employers are not too keen on it.
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Just like in every other major American city, folks who live in the 'burbs want to be able to live 30-60 mins. outside of the downtown area (i.e. SE Charlotte/Union Co./North Meck/Iredell Co./Cabbarus Co./York Co. SC here in the Charlotte area) but they want to be able to get to work in 30 mins. or less (insert several rolling eyes here). They love living in their 1/2 acre McMansions and the taxes are lower and the schools are better out in the 'burbs(which I understand).
We should know by now that No (and I repeat again, No) city in America has been able to build enough roads to handle traffic effectively!!!! Look at Southern California; How many more freeways can they build out there (answer: Zero!!!!!). You already have 10 lane freeways, toll roads, & HOV lanes to help move traffic around. Folks have been duped over the years to live further & further away from the city. As a result of this, you now have folks in that area making 1 1/2-2 hour commutes into work every morning.
Lets look at Atlanta: I-85 into downtown Atlanta from Gwinnett County is already at 8-10 lanes (and 2 of them are HOV if I remember correctly). People have been moving further & further away from Atlanta for years now (I think the sprawl starts in central Gwinnett Co. now right around the MALL OF GEORGIA exit off of I-85). I guess they could widen the roads to at least 8 lanes from the current 4, which would be good for awhile. Then a few years from now, it won't be enough. And what are the plans I hear about I-75 being expanded to 20 lanes? Yeah, I can really see that happening!!!! I guess they are going to have dual north & south bound lanes (i.e. NJ Turnpike as you get closer to NYC). That is going to be one mega mess of a project if it actually gets built (i.e. you will need lots of land to handle the dual on/off ramps; The total cost of the project will probably exceed those of THE BIG DIG in Boston!!!!!!)
In the Charlotte area, our freeway expansion options are limited. I-77 from SC State Line to Uptown you can put in 2 more lanes max. I-77 is already widen from I-85 up to I-485 (8 lanes total-2 of them HOV). You might be able to get 4 more lanes from I-485 up to Cornelius and then 2 more lanes to Iredell/Meck. Co. line but that's it. I-85 is maxed out, and I-485 will have mostly 6 lanes once the whole loop gets done, with room for maybe 2 more lanes each way. Indepedence Freeway (US-74) project won't get done until 2070, so all those folks who moved out to Union Co. are just going to have to just grin and bear it (you should've know that the morning commute was always going to be awful coming up US-74 every morning so quit your beyattching!!!!!!!).
THE BOTTOM LINE: Yeah, more of our Interstates need to be widen, but after that what will we do? Build the mass-transit system; Folks will eventually learn to use it (buses/light-rail/commuter trains) as an alternate to driving into work every day.
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Maybe we need a light rail line to get us to the light rail line, the answer is to slow growth, stop building so the infrastructure can catch up, charlotte is an ill planned city and 20 years behind in the times, that is why i moved out
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I have been to meetings at the CDOT office uptown and listened to some of their engineering and planning seminars. Often they promote a grid system as the solution to Charlotte traffic. It is a network of medium speed roads cross hatching the county. When one goes down, unlike an I77, the other pick up the traffic. Sure sounds great. Wonder why we don't hear more about it in the press? I recall hearing one of the managers of CDOT, think his name was Norm ???, talking about it on public TV.
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The roads,transportation, congestion, are a direct result of GREED! Allowing our resources to be depleted, while construction is plowing down our trees, and destroying the little natural habitats for wildlife. It's not the roads, IT"S TOO MUCH GROWTH not being kept in check! Someone is lining their pockets over this one, Tara. There should be a moratorium on NEW HOME Construction! Battle the issue from the starting point. Too much, too soon, too fast!
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I agree with Karen Walden. It's Greed, pure and simple. As for Sly, sounds like jealously to me. Why wouldn't someone with half a brain want to move away to cheaper taxes and better schools...duh!
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