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The purpose of this research project was to provide the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) with an implementation strategy for interpreting traffic counts in high tourism areas to aid in the development of Comprehensive Transportation Plans (CTPs). Because of the high variability of traffic counts in these areas, it is unreasonable to apply the typical weekday traffic count as the baseline metric for developing the CTPs for these areas. A literature review and an application of best practices, forecasting methods, and implementation strategies are provided to address the research needs.
Currently, the NCDOT utilizes typical weekday traffic data, local population data, and local employment data as the baseline for developing CTPs with the aid of local municipalities within North Carolina. However, there is a growing concern that high tourism areas, such as: Boone, Lake Lure, Blowing Rock, Topsail, Atlantic Beach, etc., experience a high variability in traffic due to seasonal tourism. This issue is obviously prevalent in other areas of the United States, and there is a need to identify best practices and methods used to provide an implementation strategy to the NCDOT that is equitable to the citizens of North Carolina and the financial constraints of the project budgets.
The first and primary recommendation with respect to Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) calculations and planning is to incorporate peak-usage and directionality; whether it be hourly or monthly. Urban areas will have AADT values similar to the design volume. However, seasonal areas, such as tourist locations, will have significant differences between the design volume and the AADT. While other states (notably Nevada and Florida) have incorporated peak-hour usage ratios into their planning forecasts, the recommendation in this report suggests using an average of the two busiest months (as shown in the case studies) when peak-hour usage rates are unknown. |
