Charlottesville 29 Bypass (VA)
Report: Bypass Won’t Solve Traffic on 29
The $245 million prosed bypass in Albemarle County will not solve traffic congestion on Route 29, according to an expert analysis released today by SELC. The report was written by Norm Marshall, a traffic expert with Smart Mobility, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in transportation modeling, design and planning.
Marshall reviewed previous traffic studies conducted by VDOT and found that:
- The most comprehensive study to date shows that the vast majority of vehicles on Route 29 are local (shoppers, students, homeowners, etc) and would not use the bypass.
- Increased development and multiple new traffic lights north of the bypass will slow the flow of traffic, making the bypass virtually obsolete.
- VDOT seriously overestimated the growth rate of traffic, concluding that 32,300 vehicles would use the bypass in 2036. In fact, based on actual traffic growth, it would be take another 220 years before that many vehicles used the bypass.
Click here to see the full report.
Case Summary
SELC, our partner groups, and thousands of concerned citizens have long fought the Virginia Department of Transportation’s plans to build a bypass of U.S. Route 29 west of Charlottesville.
Thanks in part to a legal challenge brought by SELC and a decade-long effort to educate decision-makers about the project’s flaws—and the availability of more effective, less expensive alternatives—the bypass was shelved for years while the state and our community advanced those better solutions.
But over the summer of 2011, this costly and destructive project was revived in a rushed process that showed little respect for public input, and without any evidence to counteract VDOT’s own findings that it will do little to reduce congestion.
Read the background on this issue.
Without a bypass, how can traffic problems be solved on Route 29?
For the last decade, the Charlottesville-Albemarle community has worked hard to advance smarter, long-term solutions to the traffic on Route 29. A number of major studies have shown that the best solutions focus on addressing the sources of congestion rather than building an ineffective bypass around it. The two most important ways to alleviate traffic on Route 29 are:
- Build overpasses at the busiest intersections along Route 29 to eliminate long traffic lights and backups; and
- Complete a series of parallel roads along the corridor, including the Hillsdale Drive Extension and Berkmar Drive Extended, to get much of the local traffic off of 29.
In addition, SELC supports better development practices on the Route 29 corridor that move away from big-box stores and toward pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use developments that require less driving. Reliable and attractive transit options will also help curb the number of cars on Rt. 29.
Download the Charlottesville Bypass Q&A (pdf)
Contact your elected representatives today and voice your concerns about the 29 Bypass!
More background on this case:
29 Bypass - Background >>
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