Car count at 14,000 daily

May 12, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Before the Palmer-Wasilla Highway was rebuilt in 1982, it was a winding road with no commercial development, according to Scott Thomas, a traffic engineer with the Department of Transpor-tation. Thomas learned to drive on the highway back then.

&#8220It was much like Trunk Road is today,” Thomas said. &#8220A lot of people out there should remember that.”

When the highway was upgraded 24 years ago, there were about 8,000 vehicles a day traveling on it.

&#8220There were people who had concerns at the amount of traffic then,” he said.

Some two-lane roads carry up to 20,000 vehicles a day. But, in an ideal world, traffic engineers figure that by the time the numbers grow to 12,000 a day, they already would have a road-improvement project in the design stage, Thomas said.

DOT maintains counting devices along the road, so highway engineers know that the numbers have increased to 17,000 cars, trucks and buses per day on the 10-mile strip of two-lane asphalt. They know that, on average, 14,000 vehicles pass through the intersection at North 49th State Street, for example.

And they know that Palmer-Wasilla and Parks highways meet to form one of the busiest intersections in the whole Valley.

&#8220It just gets more and more sluggish. It's the Tudor and Lake Otis of the Valley,” Thomas said, referring to one of the busiest Anchorage intersections.

It is not just the high numbers of rolling stock traveling the road that create problems, either. The purposes for driving the road cause discord.

&#8220When we try to make a road serve different functions, such as little short on-and-off trips and big long stretches where people want to pick up speed, you have conflicts, too,” he said.

As traffic increased to more than twice the numbers that cruised the road when it was rebuilt, the number of businesses and subdivisions off the road, where drivers need to enter and exit, has increased significantly, too.

&#8220In 1982, it was less than half as busy, with no commercial development,” Thomas said.

Civil engineers give a letter grade to a road for the level of service it provides, much like school grades, from A through F. A road with an A is free-flowing, Thomas said, and an F means drivers can expect to wait through at least two light changes before passing through an intersection. A two-lane highway that carries 14,000 vehicles a day would receive an E or an F, he said.

That means the Palmer-Wasilla Highway was heading for a failing grade soon after it was upgraded in 1982.

Conflicting uses on a road - coupled with the high-traffic volume - change behavior patterns in drivers, something that puts more people at risk.

&#8220Drivers become more frustrated,” Thomas said. &#8220When drivers get frustrated, they take more chances, like passing when they're not supposed to pass.”

Another risky behavior caused by clogged-road frustration is a driver taking a chance and pulling out in front of traffic when there seem to be no gaps opening up, even to make a right-hand turn. That behavior leads to T-bone crashes, he said.

Thomas also sees another problem on the road, and other roads, that all the civil engineers in the world can't fix.

&#8220Look at daily trooper reports,” he said. &#8220They are always picking up drivers who are drinking or don't have licenses. That's a good place to focus.”

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@frontiersman.com.