Traffic Study: Mercer Village

Traffic Study

Objective: The goal is to research and analyze the traffic patterns on the Mercer Campus and how these trends can relate to conservation and sustainability in the environment.

Methods: My personal research was done Monday in Mercer Village from 9:30am-10:30am. I watched and recorded the number of vehicles that passed by, their size, and how many passengers were in each vehicle.

Results:

Small Cars -120/ Large Cars- 141

Small: 1 Passenger: (96)         2 Passengers: (24)

Large: 1 Passenger: (108)       2 Passengers: (33)

Bus/Van: (9)

Taxi: (6)

           During the hour of traffic in Mercer Village from 9:30am to 10:30am, there were on average, 141 large vehicles and 120 small vehicles passing through. These large vehicles included SUV’s, smaller SUV’s, trucks, and vans. Out of these large vehicles, 33 of them had two passengers including the driver, while 108 of them had only the driver in the vehicle. Out of the smaller cars, 24 of them had two passengers while 96 had only the driver. No vehicles passed by during this hour that had more than 2 passengers, besides transportation vehicles. A bus or large passenger van drove by a total of nine times. Six taxis drove by, three of which had additional passengers to the driver and three that did not.

Conclusion:

            I think these statistics say something about a large amount of the Mercer/Macon community. It is hard to be conscious of the environment when so more people are driving large vehicles than smaller, fuel efficient cares. In addition to the size of the vehicle, it is important to pay attention to how many people are utilizing each vehicle that is on the road. So few people are carpooling, which means that each person is driving their own vehicle and ultimately contributing to gas emission in the environment. The more people that drive smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles as well as carpool with others, are helping to reduce oil demand and air pollution.

           These assumptions about Macon as a whole can vary slightly, considering on a college campus, many people drive to school or in between classes alone. Statistics for vehicle size or passenger number could change if we watched traffic out on Eisenhower rather than in Mercer Village. To find an accurate calculation of these numbers in Macon, you would have to tally up the amount of small vs large vehicles per household. The number of licensed drivers per household is also an important number to have. If a large family of six has only one vehicle, then you know that they must be carpooling. If that same family had a separate car for the mother, father, and two oldest children, it is much less friendly for the environment.