2018-165 Transportation Plan - Laserfiche WebLink

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Kittitas County Transportation Element 2018 Auto Network With many Kittitas County residents and employees relying on vehicles as their primary mode of transportation, the County's roadway network is critical to the transportation system. Growth within the region has increased the strain on the roadway network, both in terms of traffic congestion and wear and tear . Growth is also concentrated in already developed areas of the County due to limited water availability in many areas. Most of the congestion in Kittitas County occurs in the urban areas or at certain times of the year -near ski resorts in winter or routes accessing the lakes in the summer. Analysis was conducted on 45 segments of interstate, arterial, and collector roadways throughout the County. Roadway segment operations were evaluated and assigned a level of service (LOS) grade based on their operations in terms of a ratio of PM peak-hour traffic volumes to the roadway segment's capacity. This analysis was performed for multiple times of the year to capture seasonal shifts in traffic volumes. Appendix A describes the Level of Service definitions from the Florida Department of Transportation, which is a standard methodology for measuring the performance of roadway corridors. In Kittitas County, the standard for a roadway to be considered "acceptable" is LOS C for rural roads and LOS D for roads within urban growth boundaries. Based on this analysis only one segment is expected to exceed LOS standards during the 20-year planning horizon -Bowers Road located just to the north of Ellensburg is projected to be at LOS E by 2038. This section is within the UGA boundary in an area of rapid development. A future planned project to connect Bowers Road to Look Road would bring this section back into compliance with the County's LOS standards. Reecer Creek Road from Bowers Road to Old Highway 10 also sees increased volumes, which will increase LOS to D by 2038. However, because this plan reclassifies this section of Reecer Creek to an urban arterial, this is considered within the County's LOS standard. Figure 14, Figure 15, and Table 3 show the LOS segment maps and LOS analysis summary. A secondary analysis was performed to capture possible traffic increases from high growth at the Suncadia Resort. The LOS results were found to be very similar to the scenario without additional growth in Suncadia. Detailed LOS results can be found in Appendix B. Based on the regional demand and the forecasted traffic volume, all other County roadways should be able to accommodate anticipated local and regional growth over the next 20 years. Nevertheless, the County should monitor key segments especially near freeway interchanges, proposed new commercial and residential developments, and potential bottleneck locations to maintain an efficient roadway network. l sAFETY The County undertook a detailed safety analysis along the roadway network that was compiled in the 2017 Road Safety Plan. The Plan aims to reduce fatalities and severe injury accidents across the County's road network by analyzing crash data and ranking roadway improvement projects based on effectiveness. Between 2011 and 2015, about one third of collisions in the County resulted in injury. Nineteen percent of those injuries were fatal and 81 percent were serious injuries. Of these, the most common collision types were hitting a fixed object and overturning. Higher speeds and lack of lighting were also major contributing factors. Knowing the contributing factors to these collisions, the County scored the safety projects on the presence of potential hazards, inclusion in previous plans, road curvature, adequate clear zone, and instances of severe collisions. The final project list contains 39 items with eight priority levels. This allows the County to focus its resources on the most crucial projects that will make the greatest safety improvement for the cost. 30 IP age f-