Orange County NC Website
thoroughfares are not highways; however, their capability to trove traffic efficiently is <br />deemed important to the overall system. <br />The Thoroughfare Plan's calculated interrelationship is delicate. Any change to parts of <br />the system may disrupt the entire system through a ripple effect as trips redistribute <br />themselves to other facilities. To be effective, a thoroughfare plan must contain a proper <br />balance of different types of major and minor thoroughfares. By serving as a guide for <br />the orderly and systematic development of an ultimate street and highway network, a <br />thoroughfare plan can be one of the best means of shaping the area's urban framework <br />in the desired manner. <br />What a Thoroughfare Plan Is Not: <br />A thoroughfare plan is not an accumulation of detailed designs accurate enough for the <br />buying and reserving of rights -of -way. A thoroughfare plan is, however, a guide used for <br />preparing functional designs which can be used for delineating future rights -of -way. A <br />common misconception is that construction of thoroughfares is imminent. Proposed <br />thoroughfares will not be built immediately, but normally over 20-25 years and will never <br />be built if not needed. A thoroughfare plan is not used as the basis for a land use plan <br />but rather is based on a land use plan. Lastly, a thoroughfare plan does not assume <br />drastic changes in travel habits, but rather assumes a continuation of current patterns <br />(e.g., modal split, frequency, vehicle occupancy ratio, purpose, and gas availability). <br />1.3 <br />