By Hayleigh Gowans
Staff Writer
The Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council (SMTC) has recently released preliminary results from an analysis of transportation and land use on Route 5 in the village of Fayetteville, showing that a typical commute into Syracuse during peak traffic times is slightly longer than a commute from Fayetteville to Syracuse via Route 290 — but not by much.
The analysis was approved by the SMTC in September 2016, and will analyze Route 5 traffic patterns and land use in order to allow the Fayetteville local government boards and committees to find ways to continue to develop properties within the village without putting a stress on the traffic, said Mayor Mark Olson.
The SMTC recently completed a travel time study comparing east-west commuter routes on Route 5 and Route 290 between Mycenae and Syracuse. Ten SMTC staff members were given GPS units and over the course of eight days in September and October 2016, were able to collect travel times on 24 different commuter runs on each route.
The findings were released in the Winter 2017 newsletter of the SMTC and showed that the travel times of both routes were comparable and under 20 minutes, though travel time on Route 5 was greater than the average travel time on Route 290 by a relatively small time difference.
“The greatest difference in average travel times was observed for the westbound trips during the morning peak period with the average travel time on Route 5 just under four minutes greater than the average travel time on Route 290. Although greater congestion was observed during the evening peak period, overall, most segments of both routes were found to be uncongested during the peak periods. Areas of congestion were relatively short,” said the SMTC newsletter.
The next step of the analysis is to project how future development could affect these travel times, and at least one public meeting will be held on the study.
“The perception is that we have bad traffic,” said Trustee Dennis Duggleby at the Feb. 21 meeting of the board. “But this shows that the wait times aren’t as long as you might think they are.”
“It’s helpful data for us to have,” said Olson.
To read the findings in the SMTC newsletter, go to smtcmpo.org.
