By Erica Buehler
Have you noticed yourself sitting in more traffic than usual lately? This is probably due to the increase of traffic congestion and population growth in Bryan College Station. The Metropolitan Planning Organization is responsible for transportation planning in Brazos County, and they look at roads, transit, freight, bicycles, pedestrians, and carpooling to create a long-term plan. Part of their current efforts include a public survey about traffic congestion and possible solutions.
Over the last 11 years, traffic in B/CS has increased drastically and will continue to do so unless something changes, according to MPO Executive Director Daniel Rudge.
In 2007, only 12 hours of extra time was spent in traffic in B/CS; traffic wasn’t something people thought about much. The most recent traffic survey, done in 2016, shows traffic increasing anywhere from 4 to 6 percent per year since 2010.
“We can only expect traffic to get worse unless we do a variety of different things,” says Rudge.
As individuals, measures can be made to help decrease the local congestion, according to Rudge. Carpooling, utilizing public transportation, changing your work hours to avoid rushes, and vanpooling are a few of his suggestions. “About 50 percent of the commuting population would have to make the switch,” says Rudge. He explains that to prevent congestion from increasing, Brazos County and both cities could find additional funding streams, such as increased car registration fees, toll roads, and higher gas price taxes.
Now, the MPO is reaching out to B/CS citizens to help take matters into their own hands and think of ways their daily patterns can be changed. The MPO posted a public survey serving two purposes: The survey educates the public on the MPO’s findings and allows for public input on anticipated traffic congestion and tax dollars per household.
As of December 2018, about 50 percent of the people who took the survey are willing to pay an extra $1,500 per household per year to reduce the congestion. According to the survey, with no additional tax per household, traffic congestion would jump to 32 hours spent in traffic per year. There will be some funds allocated by federal and state transportation, but this survey helps the MPO put a financial constraint on their Metropolitan Transportation Plan: a 25-year multimodal plan that encompasses all means of transport, from people to trains to planes.
However, federal and state transportation funding will fall short of what is needed due to the anticipated population growth. “We are only allowed to program projects based on how much money we anticipate from the federal and state government,” says Rudge. “With the census coming up, most students don’t put [that they live] in Bryan or College Station, they put down their home address on their driver’s license. This has an impact on how much transportation funding [we’ll] receive.”
Since funding will likely fall short, Rudge emphasizes the importance of coming up with alternative solutions. “We need to look for additional revenue streams, look at ways to change travel behavior, and really look towards commuters to think of other options besides driving,” he says.
To participate in the B/CS Congestion Survey before it closes in mid-February, visit www.bcsmpo.org/207/BCS-Congestion.
