The Downtown Traffic Study Poster (Troup Downtown Master Plan) covers traffic volume in Downtown. That includes cars, commercial trucks, bicycles, motorcycles, and people walking. Every block of every street was counted, with alley traffic counts made too. The busiest streets and parking lots are identified on the map. Duval had over 11 thousand daily vehicles, Brookshire's Grocery had the busiest driveway by traffic counts. Several Downtown alleys had over 200 vehicles per day.
Each intersection was studied to determine turn ratios and flow dominance for different times of the day. Traffic patterns radiate out from the CBD, with most highways outbound overall. Time of Day peaks were mapped for each block on a separate map. That will tell business owners and police where traffic is heaviest during each rush hour. Mornings and afternoons have the most block peaks. Neighborhood pass-through is most common during the morning and evening rush hours. The most prominent flow paths are mapped for morning, noon, afternoon, and evening.
Day of the week is discussed, with a chart showing what days have the most traffic. School days and summer vacation days have about the same overall traffic, with smaller morning rushes for school holidays. Saturdays have the busiest late evening and late night traffic, but hit their stride later in the morning than Weekdays. Sundays are the slowest day of the week for Downtown traffic in Troup. Sundays only have 26% of traffic in a hypothetical 3-day week. Weekdays account for 41% of traffic in that scenario.
Traffic type is broken down. The Traffic Study has pedestrian traffic counts, bike traffic counts, trucking traffic counts, and motorcycle traffic counts. 81% of all vehicles are private autos, 16% are commercial trucks. Helmet use rates are discussed for both bikes and motorcycles. Adults on group rides wear helmets and bike clothes most of the time, but child helmet use is far too low. Jaywalking and distracted walking are mentioned, so was male to female balance and age breakdown. Men and women pedestrians are balanced by numbers, but joggers and runners are 80% female. The reason people walk or bike in Downtown was identified (shopping, running errands, commuting, etc.). Shopping is the most common reason for pedestrians in Downtown (41%), with exercise bringing most people out to walk in neighborhoods (29%).
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Heavy and commercial trucking was categorized by truck type (FHWA classifications) and industry sector. Those trucking breakdowns were subdivided by street type. School buses cross each major intersection about 50 times per day, and box trucks and rig / farm trucks are the most popular type in Troup. 30% of fire trucks and ambulances come through Downtown with their emergency lights and sirens on. 26% of oil and gas trucks are marked as flammable / explosive. Motorcycles peak at 6:30 AM, most other types have their morning rush hour at 7:30 AM. Bikes peak at 6:30 PM from group rides.
Historic Downtown traffic growth trends are discussed. Traffic on Duval (Highway 110 & 135) averaged 2,000 vehicles per day in the 1970s, but grew to an average of 7,000 by 2010. TxDOT predicts every highway in Downtown Troup will grow by 2030, with 4,000 more vehicles passing through the CBD by then.
The Train Study counted Downtown economic and traffic congestion impact from the railroad. Downtown has an average of 35 weekday trains that last 3.7 minutes each. Time of day does not affect train likelihood, with crossings happening with the same frequency all day, during the week and on the weekends. The longest train during the study lasted 65 minutes. The boom gates close 10% of the time without an actual train (false positive / false alarm). Most of those unnecessary closers happened because the train stopped for crew changes or maintenance. The average train speed was 28 mpg, the fastest was 45 mph, the slowest was 10 mph. 97% of trains travel northbound through Downtown, with 86% accelerating. The Downtown train gates are closed an average of 2 hours per day, which delays 1,810 drivers daily. That is equivalent to 106 lost workdays. Hoppers are pulled by 57% of trains, with tankers pulled by 41%. Train accidents are rare, with the most recent ones all caused by drivers trying to beat the gates, without any negligence by railroad personnel. Traffic frequently backs up across the tracks on Duval from the four-way stop at Georgia Street. On one day, stopped trains forced 460 additional cars through a neighborhood. Ambulances were noticed stopped by trains several times during emergency runs. No other route is available to first responders if a train is blocking the road when they are called. This would be a major issue if a derailment happened in Troup, cutting the city in two. Another map shows how likely each Downtown intersection is to suffer backup each time a train crosses Duval Street. Some intersections six blocks away have at least a 5% chance of train backup.
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