Drop in traffic on area highways forces review of plans
Before beginning a $2.5 billion project to widen the New Jersey Turnpike, turnpike officials said the construction was necessary to reduce existing congestion and to cope with future traffic.“Turnpike traffic is on the rise,” the state Turnpike Authority said in its justification for the project. “By 2032 northbound traffic volume is expected to increase by nearly 68 percent [above 2005 levels]; southbound traffic is forecasted to increase by 92 percent.”
Now, one-third of the way through that 27-year forecast, turnpike traffic is actually about 10 percent lower than it was in 2005.
Similar traffic declines have occurred around the region, challenging long-established assumptions about the need for bigger highways and bridges. …
“Nobody was really anticipating this,” James W. Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, said. “The models have to be recalibrated.”
Yet we in this region are proceeding with bridge and road expansions (while putting transit up for a vote that, at best, will delay us for years) when there has been no recalibration to determine whether such grandiose projects – ten lanes on Massey, six lanes on Pattullo – are necessary.
Look at the overall in-migration patterns to a region. Did NJ grow as fast as BC ? or slower, for example ?
With BC growing at roughly 1% and the Lower Mainland twice that we need additional road AND public transit infrastructure. Of course whether we need 10 lanes or 6 is debatable, but the NDP of Hwy 1 non-upgrade in the 1990’s, for example, was a major disaster, so we are just catching up. When I lived here in the last 1990’s Hwy 1 in W- and N-Van had numerous traffic lights, but it still has only 2 lanes per direction and LionsGate only 3 in total.
MetroVan has 30+ harbors, for example, and roughly half the volume of goods moves by trucks, and trucks go best on highways and not on inner city 2 lane roads.
And yes, we need far more tolled roads/bridges/tunnels, a major revenue source for governments.
BC’s provincial & municipal governments are very myopic. They should get out more and see what is happening in the world in terms of highways, tolling and subways. BC is 20-30 years behind, so far more investment into transportation infrastructure is required to keep up. Free road use, including residential parking, ought to be a thing of the past. It is a public investment, so charge for its use ! We still have no 4-lane highway to Alberta, as Hwy 1 east of Kamloops is mainly 2 lanes. A major oversight, too.
People always trot out the “commerce” justification for building roads. The reality is that the overwhelming majority of road users are single occupancy private vehicles – if we could make a significant dent in their numbers then there would be plenty of space on existing roads for commerce. Why then do commerce proponents seem to universally recommend pouring money into new roads instead of alternative solutions such as reducing SOV use through the construction of better transit?
Indeed Sean. There isn’t an arterial road in Metro Vancouver that would need to be more than 2 lanes wide in order to move all the goods we’ll need in 50 years. Without 1.5 million cars getting in their way the trucks would have smooth sailing everywhere.
What’s strange is that Thomas espouses closing side streets, charging for on-street parking and expanding transit while simultaneously demanding wider highways. Doing the former makes the latter unnecessary.
Sean Nelson, I salute you for your comment. Price Tags, I salute you for this post.