Transportation 9.3: Road Network, Cars and Trucks

Martha's Vineyard’s 177 miles of mainly two-lane, public, paved roads – conceived for an Island of about 5000 people – now must handle more than ten times that in peak summer months.

Some of these roads, such as the State Road in Vineyard Haven and Upper Main Street in Edgartown carry about 20,000 vehicles each summer day. Peak season Down-Island traffic levels have held relatively steady for the past decade, perhaps because these roads are already at capacity, though Up-Island and off-season traffic continues to grow. Summer traffic surveys at busy Down-Island locations indicate that over 95% of drivers are either year-round residents -- the clear majority especially on weekdays -- or seasonal residents and long-term visitors. Short-term visitors make up only a very small part of the total traffic.

An increase in traffic in critical locations will have an impact on congestion far out of proportion to the general increase in traffic. As traffic volumes on main roads approach their design limits at peak hour, more and more traffic is being channeled on to local roads in order to avoid congested intersections.  Since there are few alternative routes, congestion can be especially problematic for unavoidable trips, such heading to the ferry or the hospital.  

A referendum and several surveys indicated that people want to preserve the character of our rural roads and don’t want to expand Island roads or build new ones; however, there continues to be a gradual deterioration of rural character, with new curb cuts and new roadway and roadside development.

Extensive surveys show that about three quarters of visitors staying a week or more brought their vehicles on the ferry. Of the visitors staying three to six nights, fewer than one third brought vehicles, and of those staying only or two nights, only five to ten percent had their vehicles with them. This reflects the fact that short-term visitors, particularly those staying in town centers (hotels, inns, bed & breakfasts) are the easiest to accommodate without having a vehicle on the Island, since they have ready access to most visitor destinations on foot or by bus. Also, they are most impacted by the inconvenience of bringing a car on the ferry for only a few days, especially the difficulty of getting a car reservation that fits their travel plans and the relatively high cost of a ferry ticket that may not be justified for a short-term stay.

The challenge is how to deal with increases in population and traffic with an historic road network, and keep congestion within bearable levels. In surveys, four times more permanent residents disagreed than agreed with the statement “Martha's Vineyard road system should be expanded to handle increased traffic”, as did almost twice as many seasonal residents.

Since so much of the Vineyard is rural or semi-rural, a large number of people have no alternative but to travel by car or truck for at least part of their trip. This makes the availability of parking, either near the destination, or outside of town and linked to town with an efficient transit system, of primary importance. But there is often great difficulty in finding parking in town centers during the summer season.  Physical constraints related to existing buildings or natural conservation areas make it difficult to add parking areas, particularly in town, so the need to provide parking on the outskirts of town with an efficient shuttle into towns will become increasingly important.

 

Traffic Impacts of Population Growth The amount of traffic is expected to increase at about one half the rate of population growth, because of various factors. With increased traffic, peak-periods delays at critical locations will be longer, and there will be congestion in locations that presently flow smoothly. ·  Presently, drivers encounter congestion for about 12 hours per week in July. ·  With a population growth of 37%, the number of hours per week with delays increases to 59, or 70% of all hours in a week between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. ·  With a population growth of 50%, there it is estimated that there would be 97 hours with delays, and 94% of all hours in a week between 8 AM and 8 PM will be congested with substantial delays. In August, conditions will be almost as bad, and congestion will extend into June as well. An additional analysis was made to calculate the hours where there will be substantially prolonged delays. In July, there is currently 1 hour a week when conditions produce prolonged delays. With population growing 37%, the number of hours with these highly congested conditions increases to almost 50. With a 74% population growth the number is close to 90, with 90% of all hours in a week between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. severely congested. The frequency of severely congested conditions at specific locations may well be less, but there will be other serious consequences. When traffic delays start approaching these severe levels, drivers look to other routes, change their travel habits and/or avoid driving or being in the vicinity of the problems. For the Vineyard, this would mean that many other routes that are not now congested will become clogged and restricted driving could cause major economic impacts as visitors will look to vacation at other places. (See Technical Report: Growth Scenarios and their Impacts)

Objective T5: Use physical traffic calming techniques to slow traffic and improve safety in neighborhoods.

There is a general concern about the excessive speed of traffic, especially on roads that pass through neighborhoods. Roads rebuilt a few decades ago to conform to engineering safety standards seem to have the highest number of serious accidents, perhaps because the straight, wide roads induce people to drive faster. Traffic calming uses physical changes to roadway design in order to slow traffic down.

·  Strategy T5-1: Create traffic calming work groups: Create working groups in each town to identify locations with excessive traffic speed in neighborhoods, to outline a program of improvements, and to spearhead their implementation. These groups could be similar to or the same ones proposed above for pedestrian/bicycle improvements.

·  Strategy T5-2: Implement traffic calming measures to slow traffic in neighborhoods: In the short term, install simpler traffic calming techniques such as: planters to narrow roads; feedback speed signs; curb extensions, speed tables, and safety islands at crosswalks and gateways to towns as well as speed limit reductions. When major improvements are needed, efforts should be made to reconfigure excessively wide roads, in order to narrow roadways, shoulders, and cleared roadside areas, and to introduce gentle curves.

·  Strategy T5-3: Address problems at the Island’s most dangerous and congested road locations: The general aim is to minimize congestion and improve safety at critical roads and intersections by emphasizing traffic management over major physical modifications (more roads, wider roads, traffic lights) that would degrade the character of the Island. The Regional Transportation Plan has outlined, and towns are working on a series of modest improvements to the road locations with the greatest safety problems and/or congestion. Some of these projects are already under construction or in an advanced stage of planning, such as the reconstruction of Lake Avenue in Oak Bluffs to improve pedestrian and bicycle accommodation, the construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Barnes Road and the Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road, and the construction of a system of connector roads to relieve traffic at the State Road and Edgartown-Vineyard-Haven Road intersection and to structure the future redevelopment of the area. The Towns and the MVC are looking at what might be done at the Edgartown Triangle, Five Corners, and Upper State Road. (More detail is provided in the Regional Transportation Plan.)

·  Strategy T5-4: Address the shortage of parking in town centers during the summer. The lack of parking leads to additional traffic and frustration among drivers, and increases traffic congestion as drivers look for an available space. It will likely be difficult to significantly increase the number of in-town spaces, but we can better manage existing spaces. Towns can continue to develop and encourage use of park-and-ride facilities, especially for employees and longer term parkers, to keep cars out of town centers and to allow in-town parking spaces to be used most efficiently. The use of residents-only permits would ensure that spaces are available, especially overnight. A dilemma is how to favor short-term parking (which maximizes use of downtown spaces) without resorting to measures such as parking meters or excessively strict policing that could be incompatible with the welcoming of visitors. Preparation of a parking plan would involve preparing an inventory of in-town parking, analyzing their use, and proposing specific improvements.