Orange County NC Website
165 <br />166 Andy Henry said that he had not done this but that an intern could help with this sort of research. He continued his <br />167 presentation and discussed conclusions from the alternatives. He said that Orange County will continue to have brisk <br />168 employment growth and will attract employers and commuters from the outlying counties. The alternatives show <br />169 significant improvements in travel in the "no build" scenario, but there is still quite a bit of congestion. Travel time will <br />170 increase even with roadway improvements beyond the budget. The alternatives applied to the model include <br />171 improvements to highway and transit projects, more than is allocated in the budget, but congestion would still not <br />172 come down to today's levels. Mr. Henry discussed the next part in the presentation and said that in regard to transit <br />173 investments in light rail on a regional level; sometimes it is hard to detect movement in mode share. A closer look to <br />174 areas around rail and transit lines and rail stations shows that there are significant mode shifts, especially in walking <br />175 and biking (increase 3 or 4 times). This can get diluted in performance measures for the whole region, but investment <br />176 in specific areas makes a big difference. <br />177 <br />178 Alex Castro asked about how "non- motorized" was defined. Light rail and other transit have motors? <br />179 <br />180 Andy Henry clarified that non - motorized refers to bicycling and walking. The reason he used this language was <br />181 because the model does not distinguish the two. He will take this wording out in future presentations and just say <br />182 walking and bicycling and refer to pedestrians. He continued with his presentation and discussed high density and <br />183 mixed land uses in rail station areas increases non - motorized modes and increases travel time. He said that when <br />184 the team ran different alternatives with a more intense land use — "aim high" - and the same transportation network, <br />185 the "aim high" had improvements across the board with less congestion and fewer miles traveled, better mode shift to <br />186 bicycling and walking. <br />187 <br />188 Alex Castro asked how multi -modal journeys were considered as an element. Is the last mile and first mile types of <br />189 approach used? For example, Heidi might bike to the train station, put her bike on the train, when she gets there, she <br />190 goes back on a bike. <br />191 <br />192 Andy Henry said that he is not sure but sometimes performance measures will count each mode and in some ways, <br />193 only the main travel mode will be counted. He said that Mr. Castro makes a good point that there is a difference in <br />194 multi - modal. This dynamic works with number of trips as well. If someone drives to a transit station, gets on transit, <br />195 and gets off and walks, there are 3 modes and 3 trips. <br />196 <br />197 Heidi Perry asked if driving to the transit station counts as a mode. <br />198 <br />199 Andy Henry answered that usually transit is just counted but that the drive is counted in other ways as different trips. <br />200 <br />201 Art Menius asked if Mr. Henry had maps for the 4 alternatives. <br />202 <br />203 Andy Henry replied that he does and noted a link to a webpage (bottom of the page, end of presentation) for the MTP <br />204 which shows the interactive maps in the deficiency analysis. There are also maps in the alternatives section. <br />205 <br />206 Heidi Perry said that she had a question regarding the way transit is counted. If a person drives to a transit station, <br />207 the presumption is that the person will get on transit, likely the bus. If this travel is only counted for transit, is it not a <br />208 false statement that this travel frees -up traffic on the road? Are cars being counted as cars? <br />209 <br />210 Andy Henry responded that he thought that the car is still being counted. He equated the of the highway link where a <br />211 trip is calculated by volume over capacity, the car is still counted in the trip in the models used. Mr. Henry showed the <br />212 Board sample projects in Orange County, the widening of I -85 and I -40, safety improvements and capacity building to <br />213 Fordham Blvd., Churton Street in Hillsborough, NC -54W (study being done on corridor), and other such projects. <br />214 Some of the roadways noted here would include a set of collector streets (behind Daniel Boone Village), out to Mayo <br />215 Street, but he thinks that Hillsborough Road and Greensboro Street may see sidewalk improvements, modernize <br />216 Estes Drive with bicycle lanes and sidewalks slated in the funding plan called the TIP. See color -code on map in the <br />217 presentation for visual and more details. Mr. Henry discussed intersection improvements and super streets on NC -54 <br />218 headed east from Chapel Hill. He said that the concept of a super street is a main road that limits left turns into the <br />219 intersection. A vehicle has to go past the intersection and make a U -turn down the road to turn around, see /drive <br />11 <br />