Think Regional/Act Local

April 27, 2010

I had a meeting in Flint the other day and was weighing my options on how I was going to get there from SEMCOG offices. I could take I-75, but noticed that it was under construction around 9 Mile and traffic was backed up in both directions. I thought about taking the Lodge to Telegraph and Telegraph to I-75, but found that Telegraph was also under construction north of 12 Mile Road.

I decided to take the Telegraph option and it wasn’t too bad, except that when I got to I-475, I found it to be closed! The detour route was well signed and worked well, but it added time to my trip. I got there with five minutes to spare!

Another construction season is already here. How do you survive the season? Well, here are some tips:

1. Check the MDOT Web site at www.michigan.gov/mdot. They have up-to-date information on what is closed and for how long it will be closed.
2. Check various city and county road commission Web sites for construction information as well.
3. Listen to radio stations for regular updates of traffic conditions.
4. Leave early because there are often “surprises” along the way – not as many as before, but it still happens often enough.
5. Take the bus if you can and relax instead of driving.
6. Carpool with someone so you can complain together – it makes the time go faster and decreases your costs!

Enjoy the construction season! Things are getting fixed. The bad news is that if additional funding isn’t found soon, next summer will be much easier to get around because many needed projects will not be funded – but it will result in a much bumpier ride for years to come.

I have been writing this blog every week for some time now and I enjoy it. If you have read even a few of them, you know that a recurring theme is that the condition of our infrastructure continues to decline – with no end in sight. It doesn’t matter if it is pavement condition, bridge condition, or our transit system – there is not enough funding to fix the things that need to be fixed. There does not appear to be any appetite in the state legislature to increase funding for needed transportation improvements. Maybe it is time to accept the fact that the legislature is not going to increase funding for needed transportation improvements. What does this mean? Well for one thing, you can kiss goodbye all of the transit initiatives on the table including:

• Ann Arbor-Detroit Commuter Rail
• Light rail on Woodward – either the M-1portion or the DDOT piece
• The Golden Triangle
• WALLY

You can kiss needed improvements on I-94 and I-75 goodbye, too. We will never have the dollars to widen those major roads.

So let’s consider options – assuming for a moment that there are no new dollars coming. One option would be to consider not distributing the gas tax to each community in the state. Did you know that there are 617 public entities – MDOT, 83 county road commissions, and 533 cities – that own the public road system in Michigan? How about the fact that 378 entities – or 61% of the owners – own less than 25 miles of road – 225 owners own less than 10 miles each! Over 54% of the agencies receive $200,000 or less to maintain and improve the road system

What if we gave the money to just 65 agencies – MDOT, Detroit, and 63 of the 83 county road commissions – who combined represent only 10% of the eligible road agencies, but own 75% of the public roads? Would impact would that have? Is this solution any more politically acceptable than raising additional revenue? Let me know what you think – this may be where this discussion is heading!

Now here is a surprise. How many of you out there suspect that the condition of our pavements continue to get worse? Well, if you said, “Yes,” you win! You win a road system that continues to get worse with no end in sight!

Approximately 4,300 miles (10,900 lane-miles) of the region’s paved, federal-aid roads were visually rated in 2009 as part of our state Asset Management Program. Results of this survey indicate 18.5 percent of the road network in good condition, 47.5 percent in fair condition, and 34 percent in poor condition. In comparison, the 2008 survey ranked 13 percent of the road network in good condition, 57 percent in fair condition, and 30 percent in poor condition.

When you really start to see the story, though, is when you look at the last six years of data together. The chart below does that. Look at the growth in the percentage of poor pavements – from 9-34 percent in just six years! In just six years the amount of poor pavement has quadrupled. The percentage of fair pavements has gone down by almost the same amount. This means we do not have the resources to invest in pavements when they are rated in fair condition to return them to good status. As a result, needed maintenance is not done and roads continue to deteriorate into a poor state.

Road condition trends, 2004-2009, by percent of lane-miles

 
In 2009, we did see the percentage of good pavements go up. That was due to 500 lane-miles of roadway being improved – almost twice the number of lane-miles improved in 2008. As a result, the percentage of good pavement increased slightly, but overall, the condition continued to decline.

By the way – projections done by the state Transportation Asset Management Council suggest that things will continue to get worse for the next several years until things stabilize around year 2015. At that time almost 70 percent of the network will be in poor condition! This is our reality as a region and as a state until we either find a way to increase investments in our pavements or begin to abandon our roadways all together. Some choice, huh?

SEMCOG just completed its analysis of the 2009 traffic crashes and the good news is that the total number of crashes and fatalities are down compared to 2008 – way down! Nearly 11,500 fewer traffic crashes in 2009 than in 2008. The seven-county Southeast Michigan totals of 290,978 crashes represent 42 percent of total crashes in the State of Michigan.

Here are some specifics:

• Fatal crashes down – There were 18 fewer fatal traffic crashes in 2009 compared to 2008.
• Alcohol crashes down– Crashes involving alcohol totaled 4,397 in 2009, down from 4,538 in 2008. In Southeast Michigan, 3.6 percent of all traffic crashes involved alcohol.
• Young drivers account for more than one-third of all crashes – Drivers aged 16-24 were involved in nearly 35 percent of all traffic crashes in 2009 – a slight increase over 2008 numbers.
• Elderly crashes down – Crashes involving elderly drivers (age 65 and older) in Southeast Michigan totaled 16,178, down from 16,272 elderly driver crashes in 2008. Thirteen percent of all crashes involved an elderly driver in 2009.
• Motorcycle crashes down; bicycle crashes down – Traffic crashes involving motorcycles decreased by nearly 12 percent and traffic crashes involving bicycle decreased just less than one percent in 2009 from 2008. There were 1,285 traffic crashes involving motorcycles and 967 crashes involving bikes in 2009.
• Pedestrian crashes down – Crashes in Southeast Michigan involving pedestrians totaled 1,180 in 2009; this represents a two percent decrease from 2008.
• Intersection crashes remains same – About 34 percent of all traffic crashes happen at intersections in Southeast Michigan.

Obviously the decrease in traffic has something to do with overall crashes being down. However, this is not the only reason. Cars continue to be safer; law enforcement continues to increase their presence on selected roadways, and many agencies continue to advocate for safe driving. The legislature is considering legislation making it a primary offense to drive and text – another way to continue to make safe driving a priority.

Finally – some news we can be proud of!