Thursday, January 29, 2009
Driving in Morgantown
Some people (who shall remain named Nathan) have repeatedly mocked me for complaining about the traffic in Morgantown.
Lets first clarify a few things.
The population of Morgantown proper (and I live in the city) is 29,361 (up from 25,879 in 1990).
The population of Monongalia county is 87,516 (up from 75,509 in 1990).
(As a note, the population of WV is 1,814,468. All data from US census site.)
The full-time enrollment of WVU is 29,721. Even discounting townies who are also students, that’s pretty much the population of Morgantown. Many of which who have cars (this is why I see almost as many out-of-state license plates as I do in-state).
During the work week, we have an influx of more than 15k people. That’s half again the population of the city.
The capacity of Mountaineer field (in Morgantown proper) is 60,000. That’s more than twice the population of the city.
Although there has been some small effort in recent years to alleviate the congestion, you have to understand that most of the city proper is filled with two and three lane roads, (heck, I think I can probably name all the multi-lane roads [that aren’t one way] in Morgantown: South University, Beechhurst, Patterson Drive, VanVhooris, Chestnut Ridge Road, 705, The Mileground east of 705. Did I miss any? Maybe a mile section of the Kingwood Pike?) and even though there are back streets to take, those are not always an option when there is bad weather, due to the hills.
In other words, the current roads would be all well and good, if we didn’t have a regular major influx of population. Unfortunately, we do have that influx, and it’s like pulling teeth to get anything done about it.
ADDENDUM the First:
Here’s the terrain of Morgantown.
