WSDOT Looking Into Ways to Keep I90 Traffic Moving

Photo courtesy Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is looking for ways to reduce increasing congestion on Interstate 90 through the Spokane area. While we are no Seattle, we need to take steps now to make sure we don't develop traffic problems like Seattle has.

According to the Spokesman-Review, the WSDOT has hired a private engineering firm, DKS Associates, to look into low-cost ways to improve traffic flow.

A report by the WSDOT says backups and slowdowns are routine during the morning and evening. The length of freeway affected by slowdowns has expanded from a half-mile in 2013 to 3.8 miles in 2015.

In 2015, the eastbound I-90 evening commute saw nearly 4 miles of congestion lasting about an hour from the downtown viaduct to the widened segment just east of Havana Street, the congestion report said.

Average daily traffic at the Sprague Avenue interchange increased by 5 percent, from 112,000 vehicles in 2013 to 118,000 in 2015.

Time lost in traffic tie-ups on I-90 doubled from 2013 through 2015, according to the study. The state found 80,000 hours were lost to people caught in rush-hour congestion on I-90 compared with 40,000 hours in 2013. The I-90 corridor carried an estimated 235.3 million people in individual trips in 2015, up 1.9 percent over 2013.

The number of vehicles the freeway can move drops when congestion occurs.

In 2015, I-90 at Freya Street was routinely seeing traffic volumes at 79 percent of capacity at rush hour, a reduction of freeway function over 2013.

Even with the numbers above, it is important to keep things in perspective. Spokane really has very little congestion compared to other cities. Yes, the freeway has slow downs most days, but it's rare that traffic actually comes to a stop like in many places. And the delays don't last long.

Miles Driven in First Half of 2016 Breaks Record

Well so much for that trend of people driving less. Equipment World reports taht vehicle miles
traveled (VMT) in the first six months of 2016 has broken a record- with 1.58 trillion million miles driven, according to the Federal Highway Administration. The previous record of 1.54 trillion miles was set in 2015.

For comparison sake, 1.58 trillion miles is approximately 250 round trips from Earth to Pluto.

The west had a VMT increase of 4.1 percent. The Northeast region had the smallest percentage increase at 2.4 percent. Hawaii was the state with the biggest increase- 8.6 percent and Idaho and Utah tied for second at 5.1 percent.

The only VMT decrease was seen in North Dakota, with a 2.4 percent drop.

2015 Record Year For Vehicle Miles Traveled

A couple years ago, everyone in transportation was reporting that driving was down. People were finding other ways to get around- riding their bikes, the bus, whatever. Then we heard that people were getting back behind the wheel. And today there is news from the U.S. Department of Transportation, on their Fast Lane blog, that 2015 was a record year for vehicle miles traveled. 

According to USDOT numbers, U.S. drivers ran up almost three trillion (yes with a 't') vehicle miles traveled last year. Each of the first 11 months of 2015 showed an increase of between 2.5 and 4.9 percent from the same month in 2014. Data isn't in from December yet. Even so, those numbers make 2015 the most heavily traveled year in history.

That doesn't necessarily mean that individuals are driving more miles. The population has grown, meaning more people are driving, and truck shipments have increased, putting more large trucks on the road.

This isn't a record that those of us in the transportation industry are celebrating. Each of those miles means a lot of wear and tear on our roadways, increases greenhouse gas emissions, and increases traffic congestion.

Higher Fines Proposed for Left Lane Campers

I know several of you who will love this. Driving slow in the fast lane could get more expensive in Washington under a proposal that would impose penalties for “aggravated left-lane driving” with new fines based on how slow they are going.

According to the Spokesman-Review, the proposed Senate bill says driving slow in the left passing lane of a multilane road can create safety hazards and cause other drivers to brake unexpectedly or create traffic congestion.

The state already has a traffic law against driving too slowly and blocking traffic in the passing lane. The fine for that is $136. Washington State Patrol officials said troopers made about 14,000 of these stops in 2015.

The proposed law would add another fine for continuously driving at slow speeds, based on how far below the speed limit someone is driving.

Between 1 and 5 mph, the extra fine would be $27. That would go up to $37 for 6 to 10 mph below the maximum speed limit; $52 for 11 to 15 mph and $67 for 16 to 20 mph.

The Senate Transportation Committee could vote on whether to send the proposal to the full Senate in the coming weeks.

10 Traffic Myths Debunked

One of our GIS analysts opened an umbrella in my office the other day. I jokingly reminded him that he just brought bad luck on himself. He told me that's an old wive's tale and that he was going to bring a ladder into my office to walk under. It turns out that there are many, many old wive's tales, also known as myths, in the transportation world. Citylab put together a post on 10 Tired Traffic Myths that you can read here. 

It includes:

• More roads mean less traffic
• More transit means less traffic
• Bike lanes make traffic worse
• A wider road is a safer road
• The next lane over is moving faster
• There's no downside to cheap gas
• Drivers pay the full cost of road maintenance
• And more!

Read the article to find out why these are myths. 

Two Days Left To Take Web Survey

You only have a couple days left to take our web survey. There are many areas to consider when deciding which transportation projects to fund. Safety, reducing congestion, adding bicycle and pedestrian facilities, preserving and maintaining current roadways, and improving public transit are just a couple of the focus areas we have to look at.

So which is most important to you? That's what we're asking people to let us know with our web survey- which areas are a priority for you that we invest local transportation dollars in. Unfortunately, there's not enough money to go around so we have to be selective.

Let us know your preferences and thoughts so we can develop our transportation system into an efficient one for our community.

The Best/Worst Times to Drive Over the Holidays

If you're headed over the hill and through the woods to grandmother's house for the holidays, chances are you are making the drive today or tomorrow to be there on Christmas day. Don't go today, if you can help it. The traffic-tracking app Waze has released data on the best and worst times to drive over the holidays, and today is one of the worst.

Good Housekeeping reports that the worst possible times to drive are Wednesday between 3-6 p.m. and Thursday, anytime after noon. These are the times when people are getting off work and getting in the car for their road trips. The Sunday following Christmas is also bad because people will be headed home from their holiday destinations.

The best driving times are anytime Friday, because it's actually on Christmas Day. 

Santa's Not Bringing Us Bags of Money for Transportation, So Tell Us How To Spend The Little That We Have

There are so many areas to consider when deciding which transportation projects to fund. Safety, reducing congestion, adding bicycle and pedestrian facilities, preserving and maintaining current roadways, and improving public transit are just a couple of the focus areas we have to look at.

So which is most important to you? That's what we're asking people to let us know with our web survey- which areas are a priority for you that we invest local transportation dollars in. Unfortunately, there's not enough money to go around so we have to be selective.

Let us know your preferences and thoughts so we can develop our transportation system into an efficient one for our community.

Help SRTC Make Future Funding Decisions

Transportation planning isn't just paving roads. When we're distributing state and federal funds for local construction projects, we base our decisions on safety improvements a project will make, if it will reduce traffic congestion, if it includes bike and pedestrian facilities, and several other factors.

Now we want to know what your priorities are when it comes to transportation projects. Do you prefer ones that improve the condition of the roadway? Or would you rather put more money toward public transit or other areas? 

Please take our web survey to let us know how transportation funding should be divvied up. We will be taking it offline at the end of the year so you only have a couple more weeks. It should take ten minutes, at the most.

What Areas of Transportation Should Be Funded?

What is important to you when it comes to transportation? That the roads are better maintained or that there are more bike lanes and sidewalks? What about improvements that would make intersections safer or measures to reduce traffic jams and delays?

That's the problem- there are many ways to spend money on local transportation and not enough money. We come up against this issue all the time. So decide what areas are the most appropriate to fund, we're asking you.

Please take our web survey to let us know how transportation funding should be divvied up.

New federal and state regulations require SRTC to create and track performance measures and targets to ensure the transportation system is developing as planned. To do this, we must first identify what measures and targets to set.  

The web tool will help you understand how investments and outcomes are related and also allows you to identify priorities of the region that will help develop those targets. The tool allows users to choose an estimated level at which they would fund categories such as roadway preservation, congestion management, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, transit improvements and transportation safety.

As you allocate money to each category, graphics show just how far that amount would go. For roadway preservation, the amount of lane miles repaired changes as you change the funding for that category. For bicycle and pedestrian improvements, the percentage of people commuting by bike or walking increases or decreases as you add or subtract money.

The $50 million available for distribution on the web tool is based on the approximate amount of money projected to be invested in the local transportation system by SRTC over the next five years.  Once you have made your budgeting decisions, you can compare your results to others who have used the web tool and learn about the next steps in the performance measurements development process.

Caltrans Says Building New Roads Only Relieves Traffic Congestion Temporarily

The California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans, may be questioning the logic of building more roads in an effort to relieve traffic congestion. According to the Sacramento Bee, the department recently provided a link on their website to a policy paper from the National Center for Sustainable Transportation. That paper says constructing new roads and adding lanes doesn’t ease traffic congestion for very long because traffic quickly increases to fill the new capacity.

the theory, called “induced travel,” is basically the transportation version of the law of supply and demand. Adding capacity cuts travel time, thus lowering the “price” of driving and leading to an increase in driving. In the paper, Susan Handy, a professor at UC Davis, writes that increasing a road’s capacity by 10 percent is likely to increase vehicle miles traveled by 3 percent to 6 percent in the short run and 6 percent to 10 percent in the long term. This basically offsets any gains made initially.

Handy also claims that new and widened roads don’t lead to net increases in jobs or economic activity.

So the question many are asking is does Caltrans endorse the paper? The official answer is that “solid science” shows that expanding roads does lead to more driving, so the department is fixing existing roads first and only building new roads “strategically.” Caltrans is also pushing bicycling, walking and mass transit.

Take Our Web Survey to Show Us How You Would Spend $50M

If you had a whole bunch of money to spend on local transportation- say $50 million- how would you spend it?

Would your money go to projects that make our roadways safer? Or to fix potholes and other poor roadway conditions. What about bike lanes and sidewalks? 

We want to hear your priorities when it comes to transportation. Please take our web survey to let us know how transportation funding should be divvied up.

New federal and state regulations require SRTC to create and track performance measures and targets to ensure the transportation system is developing as planned. To do this, we must first identify what measures and targets to set.  

The web tool will help you understand how investments and outcomes are related and also allows you to identify priorities of the region that will help develop those targets. The tool allows users to choose an estimated level at which they would fund categories such as roadway preservation, congestion management, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, transit improvements and transportation safety.

As you allocate money to each category, graphics show just how far that amount would go. For roadway preservation, the amount of lane miles repaired changes as you change the funding for that category. For bicycle and pedestrian improvements, the percentage of people commuting by bike or walking increases or decreases as you add or subtract money.

The $50 million available for distribution on the web tool is based on the approximate amount of money projected to be invested in the local transportation system by SRTC over the next five years.  Once you have made your budgeting decisions, you can compare your results to others who have used the web tool and learn about the next steps in the performance measurements development process.

How Would YOU Invest in the Local Transportation System?

Say you had $50 million. That you HAD to spend on local transportation. And that doesn't mean buying a new car. So how would you spend it?

Would you pay for projects that make our roadways safer? Or maybe you'd put the majority of it toward fixing our roadways that are broken down and potholed (is that really a word? Well, we're going with it here). What about bike lanes and sidewalks? Would you spend money for more of them?

We're trying to determine what the priorities of area residents are when it comes to transportation. To do this, we're asking you to take our web survey.

New federal and state regulations require SRTC to create and track performance measures and targets to ensure the transportation system is developing as planned. To do this, we must first identify what measures and targets to set.  

The web tool will help you understand how investments and outcomes are related and also allows you to identify priorities of the region that will help develop those targets. The tool allows users to choose an estimated level at which they would fund categories such as roadway preservation, congestion management, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, transit improvements and transportation safety.

As you allocate money to each category, graphics show just how far that amount would go. For roadway preservation, the amount of lane miles repaired changes as you change the funding for that category. For bicycle and pedestrian improvements, the percentage of people commuting by bike or walking increases or decreases as you add or subtract money.

The $50 million available for distribution on the web tool is based on the approximate amount of money projected to be invested in the local transportation system by SRTC over the next five years.  Once you have made your budgeting decisions, you can compare your results to others who have used the web tool and learn about the next steps in the performance measurements development process.

Tell Us How You Would Spend Local Transportation $$

You've got a couple more weeks to let us know how you would spend $50 million on local transportation if it was your choice. SRTC webtool let's you weight in about your transportation priorities by basically voting with your (imaginary) dollars.

New federal and state regulations require Metropolitan Planning Organizations like SRTC to create and track performance measures and targets to ensure the transportation system is developing as planned. This is being done through a project called the Horizon 2040 Implementation Toolkit.

Horizon 2040 is the region’s long-term transportation plan that guides how our transportation system will grow between today and the year 2040. The Horizon 2040 Implementation Toolkit will identify measures and targets that can be measured using available data that relate to Horizon 2040’s Guiding Principles.

The web tool will help you understand how investments and outcomes are related and also allows you to identify priorities of the region that will help develop those targets. The tool allows users to choose an estimated level at which they would like to fund categories such as roadway preservation and management, congestion management, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, transit improvements and transportation safety.

As you allocate money to each category, graphics show just how far that amount would go. For instance, for roadway preservation, the amount of lane miles repaired changes as you change the funding for that category. For bicycle and pedestrian improvements, the percentage of people commuting by bike or walking increases or decreases as you add or subtract money. Screen shots on the following page give an idea what you will see when using the web tool.

Just like in real life, the hard part is not blowing your budget. The $50 million available for distribution on the web tool is based on the approximate amount of money projected to be invested in the local transportation system by SRTC over the next five years.  Once you have made your budgeting decisions, you can compare your results to others who have used the web tool and learn about the next steps in the performance measurements development process.

The Apocalypse of Traffic Jams

For all of you complain to me about our "traffic jams," check this out. This is a REAL traffic jam that happened near Beijing following a national holiday. Want to complain about the traffic on Division at 5 p.m. still?

How Would YOU Spend $50M on Local Transportation?

If it was your job to decide how money is spent on local transportation projects and programs, what areas would be most important for you to invest money in? SRTC is launching an online survey tool that demonstrates the difficult financial trade-offs that must be made to maintain and improve our transportation system.
New federal and state regulations require Metropolitan Planning Organizations like SRTC to create and track performance measures and targets to ensure the transportation system is developing as planned. 

The new web tool will help you understand how investments and outcomes are related and also allows you to identify priorities of the region that will help develop those targets. 

The tool allows users to choose an estimated level at which they would like to fund categories such as roadway preservation and management, congestion management, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, transit improvements and transportation safety.

As you allocate money to each category, graphics show just how far that amount would go. For instance, for roadway preservation, the amount of lane miles repaired changes as you change the funding for that category. For bicycle and pedestrian improvements, the percentage of people commuting by bike or walking increases or decreases as you add or subtract money. Screen shots on the following page give an idea what you will see when using the web tool.

Just like in real life, the hard part is not blowing your budget. The $50 million available for distribution on the web tool is based on the approximate amount of money projected to be invested in the local transportation system by SRTC over the next five years.  Once you have made your budgeting decisions, you can compare your results to others who have used the web tool and learn about the next steps in the performance measurements development process.

I-5 to be Widened Near JBLM

If you drive to Olympia more than about once a year, you know what a cluster I-5 can turn into near Joint Base Lewis McChord. I make the drive about every six weeks, year round, always on Friday, and unless you hit I-5 before 1 p.m., it's bumper to bumper gridlock.

The Olympian is reporting that the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is hoping to cut down on this congestion by adding lanes to the freeway in this area. Click the map to view it full size.

The widening will include a new northbound lane from Mounts Road to Steilacoom-DuPont Road and another lane in each direction from there to Thorne. That's a total of eight lanes wide near most of the base.

The 11.9 cent gas tax increase approved in July will pay for the $494 million project.

Microsoft to Use Data To Predict Traffic Jams

Microsoft could soon be using it's technology to predict traffic jams before they even happen. Microsoft is teaming up with the Federal University of Minas Gerais, on the Traffic Prediction Project to crunch all traffic data, including historical numbers where available, from transport departments, road cameras, Microsoft’s Bing traffic maps, and even drivers’ social networks, to see if established patterns can help foresee traffic jams from 15-60 minutes before they happen.

VentureBeat tells us how it could work, using big data.

Seattle Asks Citizens to "Hack the Commute"

So say your city is having some problems with transportation. For instance, maybe there's a lot of congestion and constant construction happening. What do you do? In Seattle, they're calling in the techies and asking them to " Hack the Commute."

Between 80 and 100 coders, designers, data analysts and entrepreneurs are expected to participate in the hackathon that goes from today through Sunday. The event is focused on coming up with new ideas and tools to address transportation issues while considering the growing population and need to accommodate disabled people and seniors.

There will be prizes for the best ideas and a "championship round." Companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Inrix, Pronto, Socrata and Walk Score are providing funding and data about Seattle transportation.

This is a pretty big event and a big deal so I'm curious to see what ideas they come up with. I'll report back when I see the results.

Kendall Yards Intersection Getting A Traffic Signal

Kendall Yards while still under cosntruction.

A potentially dangerous intersection in Spokane is about to get a new traffic light. With construction of the Kendall Yards development north of the Spokane River, an increase in traffic has been noticed, along with more people traveling via foot or bike. In response, the developer of Kendall Yards is paying to install the signal.

The Spokesman-Review has more on why this is not only good for those trying to cross the street but also those trying to get out into traffic in vehicles.