Transportation Plan - Town of Garner

Recommendation: Conduct a
conceptual study of traffic (and
pedestrian) access and mobility
around Garner’s High School and
middle schools. These areas are
congested twice a day on school days,
and are deserving of further attention
for the sake of our children and our
drivers.
Finally, the Plan recommends conceptually studying the pedestrian and
automobile accessibility and traffic flow around the high school and
middle schools. Such a study can be done for a relatively modest cost,
and should coordinate with the Town, Wake County Public Schools, and
the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
Tables 8A, 8B, and 8C on the following page illustrates performance
measures created for several of the major roadways in
Garner under these three scenarios. This analysis
depended on three important resources: the input of
the Steering Committee, Town staff, and public; the
Triangle Regional Travel Demand Model; and the
Quality/Level of Service Handbook and LOSPlan 2007
software. The public and stakeholder input processes
have already been explained. The Triangle Regional
Model (TRM, for short) uses local forecasts of
population and employment, anticipated roadway
improvements, and other variables to calculate future
travel demand and traffic on major roadways throughout the Region for
various time periods. The LOSPlan software is a quick method of
calculating link and intersection performance for cars, buses, cyclists and
pedestrians on arterial streets, and is based on the nationally accepted
standard for calculating these measures, the Highway Capacity Manual
(2000 edition). Both the TRM and LOSPlan software represent
simplifications of a complex and inter‐related set of circumstances that
comprise the day‐to‐day reality of travelers, and therefore cannot be
expected to replicate future conditions with a high degree of accuracy.
But they also represent commonly accepted ways of forecasting a
complicated future involving many factors, and thus are very useful in
studying alternatives. Three scenarios are reported: a baseline scenario
that represents approximately current conditions in the peak period of
traffic; a 2035 scenario for a scenario that does not include the Southern
Wake Freeway; and a 2035 scenario (bottom table) that does include the
Southern Wake Freeway. Although these tables are worth examining in
detail, a few notable observations can be made.
Chapter 4: Recommendations Page | 57