WHAT IS TRANSPORTATION CONCURRENCY?
Passing a transportation standard does not mean traffic stays the same.
By Bea Byline | Life of a Sardine™
WHAT IS TRANSPORTATION CONCURRENCY?
Transportation concurrency is a growth-management tool used to evaluate a proposed development in relation to the transportation standards that apply to it.
When new development is proposed, it may be expected to add vehicles to the surrounding road system. A transportation concurrency review considers whether the additional traffic meets the standards established by the applicable government.
This is where the word “concurrency” can be misleading to someone reading a development record for the first time. A concurrency determination is not necessarily a statement that the surrounding roads are free of congestion or that drivers will experience no additional delay.
Instead, the determination addresses the transportation standard being applied to the proposed development.
That makes the underlying records important. If a traffic analysis was used, read what the study evaluated. Look at the traffic attributed to the proposed development and the road segments or intersections included in the analysis. Then identify the standard used to evaluate the results.
The date of the analysis also deserves attention. Development plans can change, and traffic conditions can change over time. A traffic study should be read in the context of the project and conditions it was prepared to evaluate.
If you find a concurrency determination in a development file, do not translate it into “traffic will be fine.” That says more than the determination itself may establish.
A development can satisfy an applicable transportation standard and still add traffic to a road or intersection.
So ask:
What transportation standard was applied, and what information was used to determine that the project satisfied it?
Then follow the record forward.
Document. Fact. Unanswered question. Next record.
Nothing to see? Hold my pencil.
BEA BYLINE
Life of a Sardine™
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