Scope This year’s report focuses on transportation related to traffic congestion and air travel. Eventually, the study’s authors would like to see the transportation theme cover all aspects related to the movement of people and goods throughout the region, including car, transit, air, rail, bicycle, walking, etc. For more on possible future indicators, see the “Missing and Future Indicators” section of this report. Regional Context Over the last 25 years, the Region has experienced tremendous population and economic expansion. This has greatly affected a region that, prior to that time, was primarily defined by two-lane rural roads. Highway and road improvements have been the regional priority for many years, but they have not come close to keeping pace with needs. One of the largest projects in the last 15 to 20 years has been the approval and construction of the I-485 outer loop, which is still not completed. Many suburban areas are dealing with overburdened, often two-lane roads handling far more vehicles than they were designed for. Funding for road improvements in those areas and throughout the region remains lacking, and the number of road miles needing improvements keeps growing. Recently, some areas of the region have endeavored to incorporate alternative modes of transportation into transportation planning, including greenways, bikeways, pedestrian-friendly roadways, carpool lanes, park-and-ride bus service, light rail and streetcars. The region’s first light-rail line, running between uptown Charlotte and I-485 near Pineville, opened in November 2007. Additional light-rail lines, a commuter rail line and streetcars are in the planning stages, with development and construction contingent on future funding. Charlotte/Douglas International Airport is home to US Airways’ largest hub and in 2006 ranked 18th nationwide in passenger travel, according to Airports Council International. The airport is currently constructing a third parallel runway that will be 9,000 feet long. When the new runway is completed in 2010, the airport will have the capacity to handle three independent approaches for arrival. Summary of Indicator Results On three measures that dealt with traffic congestion, the good news is that the region hasn’t gotten worse in recent years. But the bad news is it hasn’t gotten better either. An unequivocal bright spot is the vitality of air travel. The study looked at the number of passengers arriving and departing from Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. Both numbers have steadily increased since 2003, with the greatest number of enplanements and deplanements occurring in 2006, the last year studied. With traffic, the percentage of workers age 16 or older driving to work alone remained steady. While the figure slightly trailed the North and South Carolina percentages, it exceeded the national average. With commuting to work, the percentage of workers traveling more than 25 minutes remained steady from 2000 to 2005. But the figure is still much higher than in 1990. The region tops both the North and South Carolina percentages. In looking at travel during peak times — from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. — the annual delay time per peak traveler seems to have leveled off in recent years. But this figure has nearly doubled since 1995. Missing and Future Indicators Time and labor constraints prevented inclusion of the following indicators: public transit use, public transit access and regional road/highway maintenance or improvement backlog (funded vs. unfunded). To include “intercity rail boarding” as an indicator, a consistent, reliable source of data on passenger information needs to be found. In the future, the study’s authors would like to see indicators on regional highway capacity based on level of service, full regional representation of congestion/delay calculations, as done by the Texas Transportation Institute and indicators that shed light on the movement of goods and products within the region and beyond. Additional indicators related to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport would also be good — indicators such as cargo traffic, number of city connections, number of international passengers, etc. The study’s authors would also like to a see a comparison of the region’s transportation data to figures from peer cities/regions nationwide. |