I-65 widening moving north

[froggie]

^ Similar volumes, but 65 has a much higher truck percentage.

[webny99]

What is considered high for a truck percentage? Surely not more than 20%-25%. My guess for the Thruway (Albany to Buffalo) would be about 10% to 12%.

I have never been on I-65 in Kentucky, but if I-75 is any indication, the six-laning will bring sighs of relief to those who use it regularly.

[ShawnP]

The 6 lane sections are very nice.

The horrific crosdover that killed 10 provided the political will to get it done.

Agree on the overbuild but it was a 1960's Interstate that wasn't very safe.

[froggie]

What is considered high for a truck percentage? Surely not more than 20%-25%. My guess for the Thruway (Albany to Buffalo) would be about 10% to 12%.

Typical truck percentages on a national level are in the 10-15% range.  The Highway Capacity Manual assumes 10% in the absence of hard data.  Above 20% is generally considered high.  Some Interstate segments reach above 40%, parts of I-81 in Virginia being one example.

Comparing the Thruway to I-65 KY, here's some sample points.  Thruway numbers are from 2016, Kentucky numbers from 2017 unless otherwise noted:

Thruway east of Williamsville (NY 78):  42,903 AADT,  21% trucks
Thruway west of I-390:  29,618 AADT, 17% trucks
Thruway east of I-490:  61,463 AADT, 5.5% trucks
Thruway east of I-481:  40,377 AADT, 15.9% trucks
Thruway east of I-790/Utica:  24,222 AADT, 10.9% trucks
Thruway east of Amsterdam (NY 30):  29,548, 9.1% trucks

I-65 near Milepost 10 (north of KY 100):  48,813 AADT, 39.4% trucks
I-65 near Bowling Green (north of US 231):  60,216 AADT, 29.1% trucks
I-65 north of the Cumberland Parkway:  40,622 AADT, 35.2% trucks
I-65 north of Munfordville:  40,285 AADT, 46.5% trucks
I-65 south of Elizabethtown (2015 volume):  37,597 AADT, 36.6% trucks

The lowest AADT volume I could find on I-65 between the Tennessee line and Elizabethtown was 33,427 near Upton (2014 volume).   Much of the Thruway (around Rochester, from I-81 to I-481 in Syracuse, and Oneida to I-88) is lower than that...upwards of 10K lower.  On a related note, the lowest truck percentage I found on I-65 is 23.8% near Bowling Green (on a segment that had 61K AADT).  The highest truck percentage I found on the Thruway was 23%.

[seicer]

This, plus the big news last week that the northern Kentucky outer loop is back on the radar, plus Kentucky's insistence on using BUILD grant money for DDIs in NKY instead of new construction in rural areas, is more proof that someone just doesn't get it. They continue to spend money on places that already have good transportation infrastructure and booming economies and withhold it from places that still rely on century-old roads to connect county seats and are seeing the economic renaissance pass them by.

I agree with the sentiment, but those DDI's along I-75 are in the fastest growing areas of the state - and some of the fastest growing areas in the Mid-Atlantic. It's hardly rural anymore and traffic is chronically congested because it's still pretty much the original interchange with minimal improvements. I'd agree that other solutions could be explored - such as a modified diamond/loop interchange, controlled access on both sides of the interstate, and improved local routes (e.g. US 25). And with these awards being highly competitive, it would make sense for Kentucky to submit proposals that would score well. Two rebuilt interchanges in fast growing areas will always score better than say, completing the KY 15 bypass around Jackson that will hardly get 10,000 AADT.

[webny99]

What is considered high for a truck percentage? Surely not more than 20%-25%. My guess for the Thruway (Albany to Buffalo) would be about 10% to 12%.

Typical truck percentages on a national level are in the 10-15% range.  The Highway Capacity Manual assumes 10% in the absence of hard data.  Above 20% is generally considered high.  Some Interstate segments reach above 40%, parts of I-81 in Virginia being one example.

Thanks! Not a bad guess for a shot in the dark! 

Comparing the Thruway to I-65 KY, here's some sample points.  Thruway numbers are from 2016, Kentucky numbers from 2017 unless otherwise noted

Where do you find all these numbers (if you don't mind me asking)?
I struggle to even find Thruway volume counts in anything that's publicly available, much less truck percentages.
Everything maintained by NYSTA never seems to have recent counts uploaded to the Traffic Data Viewer. Just as one example, the aforementioned stretch from Exit 44 (NY 332) to Exit 45 (I-490) shows 57K on the TDV, while your more recent figures have that stretch at 61K.

Just for interest's sake, I extrapolated the first and last of your data points in each data set:

I-90: 9,009 trucks/33,893 cars = 42,903 total
I-65: 19,232 trucks/29,580 cars = 48,813 total

I-90: 2,680 trucks/26,778 cars = 29,458 total
I-65: 13,760 trucks/23,836 cars = 37,597 total

That actually makes I-65 pretty impressive, by my standards. It helps explain why trucks tend to create bottlenecks on the Thruway even when there is less of them; just more cars trying to get by. I can't imagine what the Thruway would be like with triple, or even double, the truck volume.

The lowest AADT volume I could find on I-65 between the Tennessee line and Elizabethtown was 33,427 near Upton (2014 volume).   Much of the Thruway (around Rochester, from I-81 to I-481 in Syracuse, and Oneida to I-88) is lower than that...upwards of 10K lower.  On a related note, the lowest truck percentage I found on I-65 is 23.8% near Bowling Green (on a segment that had 61K AADT).  The highest truck percentage I found on the Thruway was 23%.

With one exception (that being Exit 46 (I-390) to Exit 47 (I-490)), the entire Thruway carries at least 30K between Buffalo and Syracuse. Most stretches are closer to 40K. Granted, volumes are lower than that through the Mohawk Valley, but that's because there's less long-distance traffic. Everyone from Western New York and Ontario bound for the East Coast heads south at Syracuse, if not sooner.

Case in point, the only stretch of the Thruway with volumes below 23K (using 33K - 10) is through the Mohawk Valley from Exit 27 (NY 30) to Exit 32 (NY 233). That entire stretch runs between 21K and 23K, meaning the mainline Thruway never falls below 20K. Again, though, I'd be interested in some more recent counts, given the above discrepancy.

[hbelkins]

This, plus the big news last week that the northern Kentucky outer loop is back on the radar, plus Kentucky's insistence on using BUILD grant money for DDIs in NKY instead of new construction in rural areas, is more proof that someone just doesn't get it. They continue to spend money on places that already have good transportation infrastructure and booming economies and withhold it from places that still rely on century-old roads to connect county seats and are seeing the economic renaissance pass them by.

I agree with the sentiment, but those DDI's along I-75 are in the fastest growing areas of the state - and some of the fastest growing areas in the Mid-Atlantic. It's hardly rural anymore and traffic is chronically congested because it's still pretty much the original interchange with minimal improvements. I'd agree that other solutions could be explored - such as a modified diamond/loop interchange, controlled access on both sides of the interstate, and improved local routes (e.g. US 25). And with these awards being highly competitive, it would make sense for Kentucky to submit proposals that would score well. Two rebuilt interchanges in fast growing areas will always score better than say, completing the KY 15 bypass around Jackson that will hardly get 10,000 AADT.

The two DDIs were basically "shovel-ready" projects that had gotten pushed back due to lack of state funding.

My personal opinion is that too many agencies put too much of an emphasis on congestion mitigation.

Where do you find all these numbers (if you don't mind me asking)?

For Kentucky, http://maps.kytc.ky.gov/photolog/?config=TrafficCounts

[froggie]

^^ HB posted the Kentucky locations.  I got the 2016 NYS data from NYSDOT's Traffic Volume Report PDF.  It's on the NYSDOT website.

[webny99]

^^ HB posted the Kentucky locations.  I got the 2016 NYS data from NYSDOT's Traffic Volume Report PDF.  It's on the NYSDOT website.

Found it. Thank you, sir. I will no longer be bored this evening with that dataset to study!