The Tyranny of Traffic
A perspective from Melissa McCullough
When considering proposed development projects, traffic is almost surely the impact that the Town Council and the public at large weigh most heavily. We know that one of the reasons that folks move here is to escape the traffic and congestion of bigger cities. Long-time residents harken back to when Chapel Hill was much smaller in size and population – when there were fewer cars on the roads. The result of all this attention to traffic is that much of our consideration of new projects centers on making things better for drivers. But does that best serve the whole community? What is the trade-off?
Developers with projects that are projected to generate 500 car trips a day are required to perform a Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA), which can cost $15K – $40K. These TIAs, which focus on the two highest hours of traffic in a day, can result in developers having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new travel or turn lanes, traffic signals, and other so-called mitigation measures, all to make it easier for some residents to save a few minutes at rush hour. Ironically, data show that this also serves to make the problem worse in the long run.
And is this approach aligned with what we say are Chapel Hill’s goals? We have as a goal to promote walking, biking, and the use of our exemplary free transit to actually get people out of their cars. The approach we usually follow does nothing to further these goals and, in fact, continues to prioritize the use of private cars, usually with single occupants.
Similarly, the Town recently adopted its first Climate Action Plan which calls for, among other things, reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMTs). Transportation is the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions (soon to be first in NC) and VMT is driven by land use decisions that favor driving*. Yet in defiance of logic and our own Climate Action Plan, we continue to make decisions that prioritize the ease and convenience of private cars.
There are two complementary tactics for getting people out of their cars: convenience and inconvenience. We need to make alternate modes of transportation an appealing, safe, and convenient choice. In fact, in places with great walk/bike infrastructure, that healthful choice is well-utilized, even a way of life. But sometimes we also need to make the use of private cars unappealing.
So, what if instead of having developers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on traffic mitigation to make car travel marginally easier for some folks, we took those dollars and invested them in bike and pedestrian infrastructure and upgrading our transit system — much cheaper alternatives per mile and per user. And what if we allowed traffic to become marginally worse — allow rush hour to take just one more cycle of the stoplight? We would actually be using development to further our Town’s goals, helping more residents, and begin to escape our tyranny of traffic.
* Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Human Settlements, Infrastructure, and Spatial Planning
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