I'm trying to figure out the circumstances in which bars are large enough contributors to traffic between 4:00pm and 6:00pm that they justify $12,000 worth of extra impact fees each year. We're supposed to believe that out of all the traffic on the road for that two hour period, bars disproportionately contribute to the load. Hogwash. The actual big contributors are more likely schools, offices, and homes.
Supposedly the extra impact fees placed on bars are "based on national data showing average traffic for specific businesses between 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.". I have a hard time believing that bars are really that popular during those hours. Then again, I'm not a bar-goer. In addition I've lived in a college town my entire life so I'm used to college town sorts of drinking patterns. For all I know going to the bar from 4 to 6 is perfectly normal but it gets buried in the noise of college drinking habits.
While thinking about this I realized it could be pretty neat to see some local data regarding trip origin and trip destination based on time of day. One could do some pretty neat visualizations if you had enough data. Imagine a "heat map" of Lincoln showing how traffic patterns flow around town. It'd be easy enough to do one type of analysis based on simple traffic counts. In fact, I have no doubt the City already uses that sort of data. Would that analysis show the same results as one that actually follows individual vehicles along its route? If we levied impact fees on homes and businesses based on actual origin and destination data, who would have the biggest impacts at various times of day?
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It’s definetly not uncommon for myself and a few others from the office to head for a couple of beers at 5, after we get off work (some days earlier). The bars, particularly neighborhood bars, seem to get a good rush at those times (hence happy hour). Some places even put out free appetizers or some sort of light snack food during that time too. I could see how most people don’t recognize it though because of the proliferation of drinking in a college town.
I’m not sure if the rush “contributes” to higher impacts on the roads though, because it’s typically merely a stop on the way home.
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