Traffic survey finds congestion is main priority for 280 residents

When the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham asked Jefferson and Shelby County residents about their biggest transportation priorities, the top answer for residents along the U.S. 280 corridor was no surprise: traffic congestion.

That data was just part of what the RPC collected from a few thousand residents over the summer to start drafting a transportation plan through 2045.

Samuel Parsons from the RPC said this transportation plan is mandated by the Federal Highway Administration every five years to identify priorities, urgent needs and ways to improve the movement of people throughout Birmingham. The plan also impacts what projects will receive federal funding to complete.

“It takes into account all modes of travel, whether it’s cars, bicycles, pedestrians, planes, trains and cars,” Parsons said.

Parsons said the drafting of the 2045 plan is underway right now and takes into account public comments and needs identified by local and state transportation departments. He said the RPC is also particularly interested in equity, or solving problems of “who can’t go where” due to barriers in mobility or access to transportation sources.

The public input portion of the plan involved an online survey as well as help from United Way in reaching low income and minority groups throughout the area to make sure their needs were factored in.

The survey data also included zip codes, Parsons said, so the RPC could see trends in what different regions of the two counties see as their greatest needs.

From the survey data, Parsons said people living south and east of Interstate 459 “are insistent that traffic is the worst problem,” especially because their commutes typically involve U.S. 280 or Interstate 65. Road repairs were also a top priority for residents in that area.

Overall, the surveys showed a high demand for improvements to public transit, which Parsons said the RPC was pleasantly surprised to see. He noted that public transit can be an economy driver in bringing large new companies to Birmingham, as well as giving people access to job opportunities over a wider geographic area.

Congestion and road repairs topped the priority list from survey respondents across Jefferson and Shelby counties, followed by public transit, safety and air quality. Parsons said sidewalks and pedestrian access seemed more important to respondents than bike lanes, but were lower on the overall list of priorities.

Opinions on whether to increase the gas tax or a similar form of additional funding for road projects, however, were mixed, with survey results showing support in the core of downtown Birmingham and some of the more rural areas of the two counties and more opposition in the cities and large towns surrounding downtown Birmingham.

The wants and needs that the RPC collected are limited by available funding, however.

“If we have X number of projects that we need to complete over the next 20 to 25 years, and we have between a quarter and a third [of] X funding available, it’s going to force us to prioritize what projects we focus on first,” Parsons said.

So, all of this data goes into what Parsons called the “fiscally constrained plan,” which is a priority listing of projects for which there is currently federal funding. There is also a “visionary plan” that lists other projects that may be wanted but don’t currently have a funding source.

“We’re all competing for dollars trickling down from the top, and we have to demonstrate why a particular project would help the most people and solve some of those issues,” he said.

Among those planned but unfunded projects are additional lanes on Alabama 119 on both sides of U.S. 280, as well as new lanes on I-65 (between U.S. 31 and the Shelby County Airport exit) and Shelby Road 52 (between Helena and I-459), Parsons said.

The fiscally constrained 2045 plan lists only projects that increase capacity on roads, such as additional lanes or overpasses, as these projects are typically large and expensive and require federal dollars. Smaller projects, such as repaving or adding safety features, can typically be handled at a municipal or county level.

The RPC has also supported and worked with other plans focused on bike, pedestrian and even freight transportation in Birmingham, which Parsons said will be subsets of the transportation plan.

Parsons said drafting of the plan will continue this fall, and there will be a second public input period in early spring 2019. The final plan should be ready by summer 2019.

Read the complete survey data and get updates on the 2045 transportation plan process at birminghamregion2045.com.