1. OVERVIEW
The three major east-west arterials (SR 60, Lumsden Road, and Bloomingdale Avenue) and Lithia Pinecrest Road carry the majority of traffic within and through the study area, and the majority of crashes and congestion are concentrated at intersections along these corridors. This is not surprising given the area has a very limited secondary roadway network. Rather than disperse trips through a fine-grain network of lower-speed local streets, Brandon’s suburban pattern results in the concentration of trips on a limited number of major corridors, forcing short, local trips to access the arterial network and mix with higher-speed traffic. 1.3 Modeling Methods & Results Using Aimsun traffic analysis software, the project team developed a series of traffic models for the study area. An initial model, called the Existing plus Committed (E+C) Model was developed to show roadway conditions and operations adjusted to account for committed and funded projects. This model provided a starting point for understanding network performance characteristics, defining potential improvement alternatives, and completing comparisons between the Lithia Pinecrest widening project and various sets of improvement alternatives. The E+C Model run resulted in the identification of several important issues and deficiencies, including bottleneck locations with particularly high volume-to-capacity ratios, slow travel times, and low average travel speeds. This initial modeling confirmed observations that both capacity constraints and connectivity issues negatively impact peak period during commutes. During the AM peak period, high volumes of vehicles attempt to traverse the network to areas of high employment outside of the network; in the PM peak period, these vehicles return from these outside employment centers and again must travel through the study area. These vehicles have limited options to traverse east and west through the study area due to the poor interconnectivity of local roadways and capacity constraints along major arterials. The initial modeling also revealed uneven
1.1 Purpose of Study The Lithia Pinecrest: Alternatives to Widening Study is a high-level analysis undertaken by Hillsborough County to identify and assess potential alternatives to widening of Lithia Pinecrest Road from Fishhawk Boulevard to Lumsden Road from two to four lanes. The study team tested various combinations of roadway capacity and intersection improvements to see which combination has the potential to improve transportation network deficiencies in the greater Brandon area. The network approach to this study is different from other corridor or intersection specific studies, in that the performance of improvements or alternative sets was evaluated for a larger study area. As shown in Figure 1, the study area included corridors and intersections extending from south of SR 60 (Brandon Boulevard) to the Alafia River and from I-75 and Falkenburg Road to Lithia Pinecrest Road. During the study, the effectiveness of potential combinations of improvements within the study area to address deficiencies was compared to the effectiveness of the Lithia Pinecrest Road widening project. The comparative analysis resulted in the identification of improvement projects, including alternatives to the full widening of Lithia Pinecrest Road, that could advance into more detailed phases of engineering and design. 1.2 Context Summary Projected population and employment growth within and around the study area is concentrated along the western edges of Brandon near I-75 and to the south of the Alafia River south of Boyette Road and Fishhawk Boulevard along the Balm Riverview and Balm Boyette Road corridors. The eastern areas of Brandon are mostly built out, with relatively modest potential for increases in population, and to the southeast of Fishhawk Ranch, little growth is projected.
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