Traffic tip of the day

With growth comes growing pains.

And one of Louisiana’s biggest pains is rush-hour congestion.

We don’t have the gridlock of New York City and Los Angeles, but our traffic woes can be just as frustrating.

With a $4 million maintenance backlog, it’s no secret that the state’s roads are in a state of disrepair.

Many times, it seems like the there is too little pavement to facilitate the swelling volume of school buses, big rigs and moms looking to drop their children off at soccer practice.

Unfortunately, the problem seems to be getting worse.

A smart driver, however, can take advantage of the Houma-Thibodaux Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Web-Based Traffic Count Database System.

The system, introduced at the MPO’s recent meeting, allows visitors of the site to click icons on a digital roadmap to learn which arteries have the highest traffic volumes.

Visitors also can find the range of speeds of each major road.

According to L.P. Ledet, a planner with Neel-Schaffer engineering firm, the number of automobiles using local parish roads is on the rise.

Figures indicate that 15,000 to 20,000 vehicles a day use U.S. Highway 90 in northern Terrebonne Parish alone. Some 14,200 use Louisiana Highway 311.

The advent of the Internet allows us to navigate our roadways with greater efficiency – for now.

In the meantime, we should push our parish, state and federal government officials for more funding to expand and repair our dilapidated roadways.

Traffic is only going to get worse as the population continues to grow.

If we don’t start addressing it now, it might be wiser to invest in a bicycle.