Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
COPY - NCDOT <br />III. ORANGE COUNTY -- POPULATION, LAND USE, AND TRAFFIC <br />Orange County is located in the northern central section of <br />North Carolina. It is bordered by Caswell and Person Counties to <br />the north, Alamance County to the west, Durham County to the east, <br />and Chatham County to the south, as shown in Figure 1. The major <br />highways in this county are I -85, I -40, US 15 -501, NC 54, NC 49, <br />NC 86, and NC 57. The Southern Railway Company possesses the only <br />railway system in Orange County, and the system runs from the <br />eastern city limits of Mebane, east into Hillsborough, to continue <br />south into the Chapel Hill /Carrboro urban area. The only airport <br />in Orange County is Horace Williams Airport, located in Chapel <br />Hill. <br />The major water resources of Orange County are as follows: <br />Eno River, located in northern Orange County; the North and South <br />Forks of the Little River in NE Orange County; Haw River, which <br />borders the county to the southwest; Lake Orange in the northern <br />central area of Orange County; University Lake, located southeast <br />of Carrboro; and a number of creeks located throughout the county. <br />Three sections of Duke Forest exist north of the Chapel <br />Hill /Carrboro urban area, and two more sections exist south and <br />west of Hillsborough. <br />Factors Affecting Transportation <br />The major objective of a thoroughfare plan is to provide a <br />system of roads to serve the existing and anticipated traffic <br />development needs for a given area. In order to determine the <br />future needs of an area, the existing population, land use, and <br />traffic characteristics should be known. Specific factors used to <br />forecast future travel characteristics are as follows: historic <br />and potential population changes; significant trends in economy; <br />character and intensity of land development; subdivision <br />regulations and /or zoning ordinances; public utility availability; <br />transportation facilities; and topographic and /or other physical <br />features of the urban area(s). <br />Population Trends <br />One of the determining factors for the traffic <br />characteristics of a given area is the population and /or the <br />population trends. The population estimates the number of people <br />who are traveling the roads. Changes in the population, along <br />with other factors, will determine the future trends of traffic <br />characteristics of a specific area. <br />In recent years, North Carolina and other southern region <br />states have experienced a pattern of immigration. For this reason, <br />Orange County has increased in population. Between 1960 and 1980 <br />the county's population almost doubled, as shown in Table 2. <br />13 <br />