Travel Demand

The following information reflects the performance of the 2009 Update to the CLRP.

Over the next two decades, rising population and jobs will lead to additional vehicles, trips and congestion on the region’s transportation system. By analyzing the various forces affecting travel demand, such as rising population and employment, we can see if and how the plan is capable of dealing with that demand.

While vehicle miles of travel (VMT) per capita, which is the measure of how much people drive, is actually forecast to decline slightly, overall VMT is increasing faster than new freeway and arterial lane miles slated for construction in the plan.

Transit work trips are forecast to increase by 34% as an increasing number of people are expected to use transit to commute to work. The result of this will inevitably be more crowding on the Metrorail system, since the ability of the transit system to expand its capacity is limited by funding constraints.

The road network will also experience a gap between forecasted demand and additional capacity. Given funding constraints, lane miles are only expected to increase 12%, while VMT is expected to rise 20%, resulting in a 23% rise in lane miles of congestion. Nearly all of this increased congestion will occur in the suburbs, with the inner suburbs experiencing the worst congestion in the region. However, it is the outer suburbs that will experience the most dramatic increase in congestion, with a 84% increase in lane miles of congestion by 2030.

Detailed travel demand forecast information is available in a table, viewable here.