The Effects of Highway Bypasses on Rural Communities and Small Urban
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NCHRP National Cooperative Highway Research Program RnsEnncH REsurrs DIcEST Number 210 Subjcct Arca: IA Planning and Adrninistration Responsible Senior Progranr Oflìcer: Scott A. .Sabol EFFECTS OF HIGHWAY BYPASSES ON RURAL COMMUNITIES AND SMALL URBAN AREAS c.. I This RRD is a staf digest of a study cottducted as part of NCHRP Project 20-5, " Synthesis of Information Related- to llighway Problerns," for which the Transportatiott Research Board is tlrc agency conducting tlrc research. The Principal Investigator responsible for this project is Sally D. I.iff, Manager, Synthesis Studies, serving under the Studies and lnþrmation Services Division of the Board. Dr. Jesse Bufington and Ms. Katie Womack, of the Texas Transporhrion Institute were responsible for data collection, initial analyses and report preparation. Dr. Andrew C. I-emer conducted additional analyses and prepared the final text. INTRODUCTION challenged decision makers. Transportation planners seek to improve transportation system efficiency by In the late fall of 1964, a new highway bypass constructing bypasses, while people in the towns to be around Cherokee,Iowa (1990 population 6,026) opened bypassed protest the diversion of traffic that some view to t¡affic. l¡cal business people had actively opposed as their sotuce of livelihootl. Such issues are particu- the construction, t'earing that traffic diverted from the larly acute in rural communities and small urban a¡eas, main route ttuough town would take sales with it. Just where highway orienæd development may account for a over two decades later, the former o\uìer of a clothing substantial proportion of the local economy. store in Cherokee echoetl the views of many others in the town when he concluded that he and others had over-reacted: the bypass did not hurt retail sales. Con- RESEARCH OBßCTIVÍ]S AND SCOPB sidering the reduced traffic and accidents experienced along the through route since the bypass was opened, The purpose of this synthesis project was to review one citizen of Cherokee termed the bypass a "godsend." the state of hrowledge about (a) the impacts of highway u). bypassæ on rural æmmunities and urban areas of less In Littlefield, Tþxas (1990 population 6,489) opinion than 50,000 population and (b) ourrent practices in us- rem¿ined divided on that town's bypass, opened the ing that knowledge in the planning of bypass develop- same year as Cherokee's. Despite a nationally recogniz.ed ment. To the extent that the potential impacts of a by- downtown revitalization effort and attempts to capital- pass can be t'oreseen, it may be possible to mitigate ize on the town's distinction as the birthplace of country adverse conse4uences that the bypass may entail. music star V/aylon Jennings, service stations, restau- rants, and grocery stores in Littlefield closed. Business shifted to a new shopping center on the bypass, where a Defining the'ferm new residential area also was developed l2). For much of the 20th Cenrury the U.S. highway As the term is generally used, a bypass highway- network has grown and evolved, and throughout much also referrecl to as a highway bypass or simply a of that evolution the issues of highway bypæses have "bypass"-is meaningtul only within the context of a Tnnrusx>nrnnox Rnsn¡ncu Bonno NA'NONAI- RESFARC}T COTJNCIL Bypaee Figure 1. Typical configuration of a bypass. cleveloped area through which a pre-existing road State transportation agencies plan ancl buikl most passes. As an older existing route approaches a town, a bypasses, albeit sometimes in response to local initia- bypass splits off and passes along the fringe of the town tives. They do so t'or various reasons, e.g., to reduce to circumvent all or most of the portions of the town traffic congestion ancl accident hazud along the old that are developed, and then ties back into the older route, to reduce travel time of through traffic, and to route from which it originated, on the other side of improve environmental conditions withh the bypassed town. l.?), (See Figure 1) area. Many of the objections to bypasses, when they There are variations on this usage. The bypass may occur, are raised by local businesses, and not without terminate at a route different from the one at which it some cause. Anecdotal evidence from towns such as originated, although a short bypass segment tying two Littlefielcl and some research studies have indicated that highways together on the same side of town is usually bypasses can indeed have adverse consequences for lo- ret'enetl to as a "spur." The new route rny not simply cal businesses, particularly in placæ with populations bypass the town but actually run for long distances below 1,000 people. Researchers have often acknowl- more-orless parallel to the oltler highway. The new edged, however, that many complex factors inlluence route may thereby bypass several towns. Some practi- local economic activity. It is difficult to draw definitive tioners consider any highway improvement that redi- statistical conclusions. (2,5,6) In any case, as tl¡e stud- rects through traffic off an existing route to avoid the ies of several hundretl bypasses reviewed in this project central business district to be a bypass. Regardless of demonstrated (e.g., see Appendioes A and B), the esti- their specific geometry, however, bypasses are associ- mated impacts of bypasses are broader than business ated primarily with smaller are s. (4) alone. Study Scope Considering Impacts This project included two principal tasks: (1) A sur- This project considered the observable impacts of vey questionnaire to all U.S. state and Canadian pro- highway bypasses and the procedures used to plan by- vincial deparünents of transportation solicited past passes to achieve the greatest positive impact. In both studies on the topic and surveyed agency practices re- research and plarning, impact estimation and assess- garding planning of bypasses; 47 states and 6 provinces ment comprise two distinct activities: the former seeks responded. (2) A review of published literature and to identify and measure the economic and environ- agency-supplied studies yielded infbrmation on issues mental consequences of developing a bypass, the latter of concem, research methods, and results of analyses of judges whether those consequences are desirable or the impacts of trypasses (e.g., observations of condi- could be made more so. tions before and after bypass construction). More than 190 publications were reviewed-predominantly prod- TABLE I Reasons for constructing bypasses' as a ucts of transportation agency staff or academic re- perccntage ofall reasons cited searchers mostly funded by transportation agency pro- Frec¡uency of grams-from North America and Europe, dating from Reæons cited citing (percent) 1950 onward. Many of these before and after studies were funded by the Federal Highway Administration Relief of lraff ic congestion in 54 (FHWA). Reflecting the srnller role that bypass con- the bypassed community struction plays in most agency operations, as compared Iìerouting of traffic n to the early years of development of the U.S. and Inter- state highway systems, fewer than one-fifth of the pub- Noise reduction 5 lications reviewed appeared within the past 10 years. 4 This combination of cornrnentary of agency practitio- Traffic safety improvcment as summarized in this ners and tlìe literature reviewed, Enhance access to tourisln 8 digest, provide a representative view of the current un- resources or "downtown" derstanding of the impacts of bypasses and practices in bypass plaming. could be rnore sigrúlicant to the corununity where the is constructed, e.g., changes h economic mndi- IMPACT STUDY DATA AND ANALYSIS bypass to the survey of highway agencies in- METHODS tions. Responses dicated that economic issues accounted for some 43 percent of the reasous for concent raised by communi- Nearly 9}percent of the bypassed areas included in ties where bypasses were considered. the literature review had populations (at the time of the reported analysis) below 20,000 people. The bypass routes were dist¡ibuted about equally betweelr U.S. In- Data Sources terstate (or Canadian equivalent) and U.S. primaty, state, or other route systems not necessarily designed to The principal types of data collected for impact Interstate highway standafds. studies, as cited in the literature, indicate tltis emphasis The average length of bypasses for which case study orr business conditiolts. Table 2 lists these principal information was available was neady six miles, and the types of data. Data for bypass impact studies typically distance between the old a¡rd new routes averaged just are gathered primarily from standard sources such as more than 1.3 miles. Most of the old tfuough routes the U.S. Ce¡lsus, state economic development agellcy were twoJane roads, while bypasses typically had four lanes. At the time of study, i.e., some years after the by- passes opened to traffic, researchers found that average TABLE 2 Typical bypass impact study areas daily traffic (ADÐ levels on the older routes had de- 50 to 70 percent. clined, on average, by approximately Types of data Frequency of collected for impact citing (percent) assessmetlt Reasons for Bypasses Population 100 Tlrble 1 summarizes the reasons cited in reviewed Business levels (e.g., sales) 93 reports for constructing bypasses. The frequency with which these reasons are cited differs somewhat from Land use 65 agency responses to the survey adminis- transportation Land value 46 tered as part of this shrdy. Safety issues, in particular, accounted for approximately 22 percent of the reasons Employment 32 agencies cited for building bypassæ, while congætion and Traffic 52 related issues accounted for 42ptcentof reasons cited. The reasons cited for building bypasses provide the Environmental conditions 4 initial framework for assessing the impacts of those by- passes, in terms of whether they fulfilled their purposes.