Traffic experts discuss ideas for reducing 107 congestion

Traffic experts discuss ideas for reducing 107 congestion By Justin Goble A group of "transportation professionals" spoke with members of the community at length last Thursday (Sept. 25) about ways to plan for traffic improvements in the county. Speakers Leigh Lane, Walter Kulash and Drew Joyner spoke to a crowd of about 50 people for four hours about what might be done to deal with traffic along N.C. 107 as well as how the county can plan for future traffic needs. Lane, a manager of transportation policy for the Louis Berger Group Inc., who has more than 21 years in transportation planning and project development – including 15 years with the N.C. Department of Transportation as head of its public involvement and community studies unit – spoke to the crowd about "context-sensitive solutions" to traffic woes. She said when planning for future traffic needs, people need to consider the context in which they are working. "What is context?" she asked. "It's a set of interrelated conditions. You have to start with the quality of life. That includes things like cultural resources, housing, health, safety and other things. But people's values may differ a bit. The priority that a community places on these things is very important. The quality of life results from the interconnection of those needs." However, when thinking about these issues, Lane said transportation is something that is never discussed. She said it should be, because traffic affects communities in many ways. Members of the community have to be active in transportation planning because it affects their daily lives, she said. "If you ask people to define quality of life, they don't bring up transportation," she said. "People don't see transportation as an end unto itself. They see it as a means to an end. But transportation affects everything. So if you can organize the components of the context you're working in, you get a "basework" for information gathering. That allows you to see what the community wants for an area and how transportation needs fit into that." Planners have to also consider aesthetic, economic, social and environmental issues while doing traffic plans for a community, she said. As an example of what communities can do to affect traffic, Lane showed the group a thoroughfare in Washington state. She said the area had been having a problem with accidents and speeding, with people being afraid to turn left. There was little to no walkability, she said. The community came up with a vision for that area, which was to create a "Main Street atmosphere" and town center for visitors and residents. "They redrew the lane widths of the road to 10 feet, put in a median and installed a 6 foot sidewalk. They also installed decorative lighting and put in crosswalks. Did it work? It sure did. Because of these changes, there was a 58-percent reduction in crashes. The average operational speed went from 35 miles per hour to 33. Someone told me a recent study showed that it was down to 31. They've also done counts and found there are nearly 2,000 pedestrians every month. One of the most fascinating things was that, when this started, businesses in the area were upset over the median but decided to go along with it. Once the corridor opened up, the tax revenue increased by $3.5 million in one year. Businesses even relocated to be part of the corridor." In the end, Lane said the people in Jackson County could have a hand in shaping the future of transportation in the area. However, she said they need to get involved at the "ground level" to make sure any transportation projects fit in with what the community wants. "You have to come up with a vision, get educated about what needs to be done and do your homework," she said. Next up was Walter Kulash, an independent traffic engineer who has spoken in Jackson County twice before. Kulash argued that the previous method of dealing with increasing traffic – widening roads – is fundamentally flawed. If the Department of Transportation were to widen a road like N.C. 107, he said that would only increase the amount of traffic on it. "If you widen a road, you get a new traffic number," he said. "Usually, more people start to use that road than you projected. The fact that the wider road is in place changes driver behavior and creates more traffic. This is the only public institution that sees this happen – the increase in capacity met with such an increase in usage. If the elementary schools said they could keep kids until they were 16, you wouldn't see such a sharp increase in the number of kids in elementary schools. But in the case of traffic, this pattern goes on and on and on." Instead, Kulash said the more effective solution to congestion is to create an interconnected series of side roads that keep people off of the main thoroughfare. Because congestion is getting worse on the main roads in many cities, he said it forces people to change their driving habits in an effort to avoid it. Planners can take advantage of that fact by connecting the roads already in place, he said. "If we accept that congestion on the main roads is a problem we can't entirely overcome, the initial costs do look bad," he said. "People are waiting longer in traffic and things like that. But if you look at the secondary costs and the tertiary costs, it starts to look better. People don't want to move farther away, so they make improvements to their homes. Local businesses look more attractive since people are less willing to drive farther away for goods and services. So instead of trying to fight congestion by widening roads, we need to squeeze more out of the roads we already have in place." As to how that could be accomplished in Jackson County, Kulash presented a map based on one Sylva Planning Director Jim Aust first drew four years ago and which has since been expanded. That plan includes a 1-mile connector to join the relocated Hospital Road with Cope Creek Road, which would allow travelers from the Moody Bottom area to avoid the Business 23/107 intersection. Another connector could give Dillardtown residents access to the same new road. Constructing another mile or so of new road from Cope Creek to Haskett Road could provide travelers with an alternate route to Fairview Elementary and Smoky Mountain High schools. Also included is a connector from Claude Cook Road, off of East Cope Creek, to Songbird Lane in the area of Fairview Road. Among other features of the plan are a new road to connect Griffin Road to Buchanan Loop – to provide a back entrance to Wal-Mart – and a connection from Cherry Street to Walter Ashe Road to allow Rhodes Cove travelers to enter the highway at a controlled intersection. Another road shown as a connector runs from Blanton Branch Road, one terminus for the proposed Southern Loop, to Cane Creek Road. That route already exists, though a portion of it is unpaved and difficult for many vehicles to travel. The map also shows numerous other proposed connectors. Included are projected roads from Locust Creek to East Cope Creek, Claude Cook Road to the new Blanton Branch-Cane Creek connector, Cope Creek to Lovesfield near Wal-Mart, and North River Road to the back of Wal-Mart. Though this would put a lot of cars on secondary roads, Kulash said it would be safe because many of the roads would be two-lane. Also, with a series of connector roads, the number of intersections is increased, which would force cars to travel at slower speeds. While diverting traffic from N.C. 107, this plan increases the street frontage for buildings and businesses. Planners can use that fact to create multiple entrances and exits for businesses, and ordinances can be used to create a more "neighborhood friendly" atmosphere. "If you encourage businesses not to make the parking lot the focal point, you can create some really nice, walkable areas," he said. "Making the business itself a focal point, with sidewalks allowing people to walk to it, is a much more attractive option. Most businesses only want to be on the main road for visibility purposes. They want you to see them. However, they don't care if you get to them through back roads." The biggest problem with this idea is that the state Department of Transportation does not own rights of way to many of those roads. That means state funding could not be used to create connectors, leaving it to local agencies to come up with the money. However, he said communities that had initiated similar plans had been able to raise the funds to complete such projects. Speaking last was Drew Joyner, head of the NCDOT's human environment unit. That unit is responsible for groups that perform public involvement, community impact, archaeological, historic architecture, noise and air quality studies for state transportation officials. Joyner laid out the DOT's process for construction projects, saying the department comes up with a long-range plan to meet an area's traffic needs. That process includes developing a comprehensive transportation plan. From there, the department goes into the "programming" stage, where officials see what the most important projects are and see how much money can be allocated to them. After that, the DOT does project design and development, where officials look at a project's feasibility, consider its alternatives and start drawing up plans. Joyner said those two phases continue right up to right of way acquisition and construction. "A lot goes on simultaneously," he said. "Things can change from day to day." As for N.C. 107, Joyner said DOT is looking at the various options available to alleviate traffic on that road. "We're looking at a variety of options and 'what-ifs,' " he said. "We're not just doing that to figure out costs. We're seeing if there are some viable alternatives and we'll be using that information to make decisions." The current plan to alleviate traffic, known as the Southern Loop (project R4745), is just one of many ideas being suggested, he said. Though that project is on the DOT's Transportation Improvement Plan for the area, he said that plan is only in its early stages and will more than likely be modified as time goes on. DOT planners on hand even commented that the project is not even a "line on the map" and that they have not even begun the initial planning phases. As first proposed, the Southern Loop would have run from U.S. 74 near Blanton Branch to U.S. 441 near Cagle Branch, crossing N.C. 107 near Locust Creek. However, the 107-441 segment has been dropped leaving a proposed connector road from 107 to 74. "The project development stage takes anywhere from five to seven years," he said. "Sometimes the CTP is updated once or twice before we even get to the project development stage." The Jackson County Transportation Task Force does not have a formal role in planning for the Southern Loop, he said, but the project does have several opportunities for public input. The DOT does want to hear the public's opinion on the issue, he said, though some people might not think they do. "If the DOT doesn't give you what you want, don't think that we're not listening," he said. "Sometimes we go into a community with 25 different people who have 25 different views on a project and most of them conflict. There's always a piece of the community that's not happy with our decisions. It's not that we didn't listen. We want to do what's right and make the community happy. The last thing we want to do is shove something down the community's throat. We have a lot of people to make happy, and we hope you challenge us with your ideas." After the three had finished their presentations, members of the Transportation Task Force were allowed to ask questions of the speakers. Member Don Selzer asked Kulash how communities with cul-de-sacs fit into his plan. "The reasons behind those are to limit access and traffic in neighborhoods," he said. Kulash said cul-de-sacs could fit in with a network of connected roads. It would just be a manner of planning better access to those neighborhoods. "We can have cul-de-sacs in communities," he said. "But let's not have just one entry and exit point. Let's let people have multiple ways in and out of a neighborhood." DOT Engineer Jamie Wilson questioned Kulash's plan, saying it wasn't feasible since state funds aren't available for such a project. Even if funding was an option, he said building a series of connectors would do a lot of harm to the community. "It's not realistic to impose upon people in those areas," Wilson said. "The state does not own those roads and DOT money cannot pay to build connectors. Even if it could move forward, that would have a huge impact on the community. People don't want to be told what to do, but that's what you'd be doing." Though admitting he'd never been in the communities where the planned connector roads would be built, Kulash said he thought the incentives to move forward with such a project would grow as traffic on N.C. 107 gets worse. "There's a lack of connectivity because people never thought about it," he said. "But I don't think people located on those streets with the thought that there would be nothing else. As traffic on N.C. 107 gets worse, people would be more inclined to travel connector roads. People understand that if there's no connectivity, we're stuck with widening N.C. 107 to seven lanes with restricted turning." Lane agreed, arguing that she thought state funding could be used for that project. Task force member Susan Leveille, who represents the Smart Roads Alliance, asked why their suggestions for alternatives had not been considered. She said Smart Roads had received a letter asking for their suggestions but those were not included in later documentation on the Southern Loop project. Smart Roads member Roger Turner agreed, saying public involvement with DOT seemed to be only reactive. Joyner said that with the Southern Loop, the DOT had solicited public input much earlier than with other projects. Though suggestions from Smart Roads have not been included in some of the documentation, he said that was mainly because DOT officials usually consider alternatives suggested by the public much later on in a project cycle. "There's a lot of things we have to work out, and one of those is the best way to get the community involved," he said. "We may not have responded to Smart Roads comments in our recent documents, but that's because we usually don't respond until the development document is complete. It doesn't indicate we aren't listening. We're just in the middle of a very long process."