Major Investment Study / Draft Environmental Impact Statement   1. Project Purpose and Need     1.3 Specific Problems in the Corridor

1.3 SPECIFIC PROBLEMS OF THE CORRIDOR

1.3.1 BACKGROUND

The Commission's report summarized the environmental, economic, and societal consequences of sprawl as follows:

• Loss of open space and the natural environment
• Loss of farmland
• Loss of habitat
• Loss of areas for aquifer recharge for both groundwater supply and surface water flow
• Increased flooding
• Air pollution from increases in vehicle miles traveled
• Increased infrastructure (roads, highways, water lines, sewers, schools) requirements and costs
• Deterioration of infrastructure in older communities left behind by the new development
• Threats to the social viability of urban centers as the flight of middle- and upper-income residents results in concentration of poor and minority populations in urban areas with limited access to jobs or schools that provide quality education.

Historical development patterns are responsible for many of the corridor's specific problems. Philadelphia prospered and grew from the early colonial period through the mid-twentieth century due to several inter-related factors, including the quality of its port, the richness of the nearby land for agriculture, the temperate climate, the wealth of raw materials for industry and trade, and the relative ease of transportation along the Schuylkill River and its valley. Philadelphia was the most populous, wealthy, and culturally rich city in the nation in 1800. At the time of the nation's centennial, Philadelphia had the most diverse and skill-based industrial economy in the nation and perhaps the world. Reading, although much smaller, was in many ways a microcosm of Philadelphia. Conshohocken, Norristown, Phoenixville, Pottstown, Birdsboro, and Reading were all early industrial and commercial centers. Even before it was the winter headquarters of the American army during the Revolutionary War, Valley Forge was an industrial village.

The population of the corridor's towns and cities grew as industry and commerce prospered during this time period. Philadelphia expanded to 2.1 million people by 1950. Reading grew to 101,000 people by 1930. People first traveled to work by walking and later by streetcar and bus. Up through World War II the Philadelphia suburbs were "streetcar" and "railroad" suburbs, because these were the means by which people commuted to work and shopping. The cities and towns along the river were connected first by the river itself, then by wagon roads, canals, and railroads, and later by roads for automobiles along the old wagon roads.

In the 1950's development patterns changed, in great part spurred by changes in the transportation system. The Pennsylvania Turnpike was completed from central Pennsylvania east to the Delaware River, bypassing Reading, Philadelphia, and the towns in between. The Schuylkill Expressway was completed, connecting Philadelphia with the turnpike at a farming area near King of Prussia, a small crossroads community at the edge of the agriculturally rich Chester Valley. Over the last 50 years, the King of Prussia area has developed from a rural crossroads to a satellite city with the largest concentration of jobs in the Philadelphia suburbs and the largest suburban shopping complex in the eastern United States. Thirty-five years later the Pottstown Expressway (US Route 422) was completed from King of Prussia to Douglassville. Both highways bypassed many older communities because access to these highways was easier from the nearby farmland and lightly developed countryside than from the existing towns. People could commute to work relatively quickly along these highways, and congestion in the city was avoided by creating new centers of industry and commerce in King of Prussia and other areas along the new highways.

Whereas late 19^th and early 20^th century growth of Philadelphia, Reading and their suburbs was abetted by trolleys and commuter rail, little of the suburban growth after 1950 benefited from these systems. Philadelphia had the third largest commuter rail system in the nation, but the lines were all built to serve pre-1950 residential and commercial areas. The most recently built fixed rail system in Philadelphia and its Pennsylvania suburbs is the Broad Street Subway, which was finished in the 1930s. No new fixed-rail transit systems were built to serve King of Prussia, the old industrial boroughs or the rapidly growing suburban townships to the west. As a result, the overwhelming majority of travel in these areas is automobile dependent.

The consequences of the corridor's change from two cities and several towns surrounded by agricultural land and open space to the still expanding suburbs and sprawl, mirrors the consequences highlighted in the Commission's report. The consequences of this sprawl and the corridor's problems are described below.

1.3.2 TRAFFIC CONGESTION

The Schuylkill Expressway and US Route 422 are the principal highways and together serve as the spine of the 62-mile long Schuylkill Valley Corridor. Major congestion, with bumper-to-bumper, stop-and-go traffic, is a daily feature of the Schuylkill Expressway's morning and evening commutes both eastbound (towards Philadelphia) and westbound (towards King of Prussia). Major tie-ups frequently occur at any time of day or night. Morning commute eastbound traffic on the US Route 422 Expressway is regularly bumper-to-bumper approaching Route 29 and King of Prussia. Similar congestion takes place on Ridge Pike and Route 23, arterial roads roughly paralleling the expressways.

Two technical terms commonly used to characterize roadway congestion are Level of Service (LOS) and Volume to Capacity Ratio (V/C). LOS is the performance measure used to characterize roadway traffic flow conditions. LOS ranges from A to F, with A representing free-flow/unimpeded traffic, and F representing breakdown in vehicular flow with queues forming behind breakdown points. LOS B through E represent progressively deteriorating conditions as defined in the most recent Highway Capacity Manual. LOS E indicates that a highway is at capacity and traffic operations are volatile. Any incident at this LOS can be expected to produce a serious breakdown with extensive traffic queuing. V/C ratio is the measure calculated to establish LOS. On limited access highways V/C ratios between approximately 0.8 and 1.0 are within the LOS E range for highways depending on the free-flow speed which can range from 55 mph to 65 mph. V/C ratios greater than 1.0 are within LOS F.

V/C ratios for the main study corridor limited access highways and arterials and related LOS's for the limited access highways are presented in Chapter 4 of this report (See Table 4.2-1 - Congested Roadway Segments). V/C ratios are projected to generally worsen through 2020, even with the planned highway improvements included in the region's TIP. Each of the aforementioned roadways have several segments with V/C ratios over 0.90 (LOS E) and with a number of segments greater than 1.0 (LOS F). More than 90 percent of the highway and arterial segments are projected to experience reduced LOS through 2020. For example, out of 25 possible segments (east and west) on the Schuylkill Expressway from Center City to the Turnpike, 4 segments will have a LOS F and 19 segments will have a LOS E. US Route 422 will have 4 segments at LOS F and 6 at LOS D out of 12 segments (east and west). US Route 202 will have 14 segments at LOS F out of 20 total segments (east and west) with the remaining segments at LOS E.

Highway traffic trend monitoring and reporting in Philadelphia and surrounding counties are the responsibility of the DVRPC. Two data sets from their report, Highway Traffic Trends in the Delaware Valley Region, 1960 - 1990 - 1995 (1997) illustrate recent traffic trends. The annual average daily number of vehicles passing a suite of monitoring points including, and tributary to, the Schuylkill Expressway west of Philadelphia in 1960 was 168,000. The number in 1990 was 462,000, a 275 percent increase. The Schuylkill Expressway was constructed from 1949 to 1959 and reconstructed from 1984 to 1986. Expansion is considered infeasible for most of its length. In 1985 US Route 422 was converted to a newly constructed limited access highway for most of its length in Montgomery County. Between 1990 and 1995 the average annual daily number of vehicles counted on US Route 422 near the Berks County/Montgomery County line west of Pottstown increased 34 percent, from 21,800 to 29,200. Expectations are the year 2000 numbers will document further increases.

These observations indicate continued and growing traffic congestion, not only in traditional downtown-oriented commuting directions, but also in reverse commuting directions driven primarily by the newer centers of development. Traffic is forced from highways onto streets and local roads, requiring them to serve as unintentional bypasses around clogged expressways. Traffic congestion results in greater travel times within the corridor both in terms of slower highway speeds as well as greater allowance for the uncertainty of potential travel delays.

1.3.3 AIR POLLUTION

On a regional basis, the State Implementation Plan for air quality attainment, projects that in the Philadelphia region (Philadelphia, Delaware, Bucks, Chester, and Montgomery counties) emissions from roadway vehicles produce 19 percent of the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and 29 percent of the Nitrogen Oxides (NO_X), the precursor chemicals to ground level ozone formation. While roadway vehicle emissions are projected to decrease through 2005 due to improved emission controls in newer automobiles, the increase in larger, lower gas mileage vehicles may slow the rate of reduction. Increasing vehicle miles traveled and worsening traffic congestion will continue to impact public health and the environment. Federal transportation policy discourages the construction of additional highway lane miles for the purpose of capacity enhancement in ozone nonattainment areas. During the late 20^th century period of increasing concerns about the impacts of ground-level ozone, no new public transit service was introduced in the corridor that could positively affect these trends.

1.3.4 SPRAWL DEVELOPMENT AND LOSS OF OPEN SPACE AND FARMLAND

Sprawl development is profoundly changing the face of the land in the Schuylkill Valley corridor. Data provided in DVRPC's Land Use in the Delaware Valley 1970 - 1990, Analytical Report No. 2 (1994) for the five-county Philadelphia region as a whole, show that developed land increased 32 percent (603 to 795 square miles). At the same time the five-county population actually declined during the same period. DVRPC also reports that for the 18-year period between 1974 and 1992, 157,000 acres (245 square miles) of farmland in the same area were lost, mostly to development (Guiding Regional Growth: Land Use Element of the DVRPC Year 2020 Plan (1995). Data on farmland acreage lost was not available by corridor municipality. However, based on anecdotal evidence, the corridor is in the midst of intensive conversion of farmland to suburban development, particularly since the advent of the US Route 422 Expressway.

DVRPC reports show little population growth in the townships in the corridor west of Upper Merion for the 1970 - 1990 period. The opening of the US Route 422 expressway in the late 1980s has changed this pattern. Casual observation is supported by statistics. The Montgomery County Planning Commission's, 1997 Annual Summary Report - Subdivision, Land Development, and Zoning Activity, shows that two of the three municipalities in the county reporting the greatest number of proposed new residential units for 1997 - Limerick and Lower Providence townships - are in the study corridor. Between 1990 and 1998, population in four contiguous Montgomery County townships along the US Route 422 corridor - Lower Providence, Upper Providence, Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove - increased by 28 percent (12,000 people). Further west, Amity Township in eastern Berks County is undergoing a residential and commercial building boom. It is anticipated that the 2000 census data will show an increasing rate of development in all the townships in the western and central portions of the corridor. The distribution of projected population growth in the corridor through 2020 shows the greatest rates of growth in the corridor's western half (Figure 1.3-1 Projected Population Growth - Year 1997 to 2020 [PDF]). For specific numbers, refer to Table 5.3-4 Corridor Employment Trends.

The sprawl that has replaced farmland and other open space has come at a substantial social and environmental cost that includes increased roadway congestion and related travel times, increased stormwater runoff and flooding, reduced aquifer recharge and base stream flows, diminished animal habitat, and disturbed vistas.

1.3.5 SOCIAL ISSUES AND ACCESS TO JOBS

Average annual household income in the two cities and six boroughs along the right-of-way was $32,000 in 1990, while average annual household income for all remaining jursidictions in the corridor was $63,000, nearly twice as much. Thirty-four percent of the corridor's 2.1 million residents are minorities. Ninety-three percent of the corridor's minority population resides within Philadelphia, and an additional five percent lives in Norristown, Pottstown, and Reading. The minority share of population in Upper Merion Township, the corridor's third largest employment center and the largest suburban employment center, is approximately 6 percent.

From 1970 to 1990 the region experienced a substantial increase in jobs and a major relocation of these jobs. These changes for the Philadelphia and four Pennsylvania suburban counties were documented in the DVRPC report, The Mismatch Between Jobs and Workers in the Delaware Valley (1991). During this period Philadelphia had a net loss of 149,000 jobs, while the four suburban counties had a net increase of 493,000 jobs, a regional net increase of 344,000 jobs. Reading, like Philadelphia, incurred substantial job losses. The trends continue to indicate a shift of jobs to the suburban counties. DVRPC projects jobs in the entire 9 county region will increase by 10 percent from 1990 to 2010, but job growth in Philadelphia, the most urbanized of the 9 counties, is projected to increase by only 1 percent. DVRPC also documented a shift in employment from manufacturing to the services sector. DVRPC noted that much of the manufacturing base is concentrated in areas traditionally served by transit, while service sector employment tends to be located in areas near major highways. Given the larger tracts of land generally available and access provided by the highway system, jobs have shifted to the newer suburbs. Projected employment growth through 2020 is provided in Figure 1.3-2 Projected Employment Growth - Year 1997 to 2020 [PDF]. For specific numbers, refer to Table 5.3-4 Corridor Employment Trends.

Two access to work issues are automobile ownership and affordable housing. Census data reveal that in Philadelphia there are about two privately owned automobiles available for every five workers. In Montgomery County, there are four cars available for every five workers. There is a similar difference between Reading and the rest of the Berks County corridor municipalities. There is also a major mismatch between areas of affordable housing and the growing suburban employment centers.

This growing mismatch between employment centers and the distribution of lower income people, minority populations, automobile access, and affordable housing is exacerbated by an existing rail-based transit system designed to move people to work within Philadelphia and from the older suburban residential areas to Center City, but not from the city and boroughs to the rapidly growing suburban job centers.

1.3.6 REGIONAL ORIGINS AND DESTINATIONS

There have been no substantial additions to the existing rail transit systems within Philadelphia and between Philadelphia and its Pennsylvania suburbs since the 1930s. Meanwhile, there have been substantial changes in where people live and work, with all of the increases in the suburban counties. SEPTA and BARTA have both extended and increased bus service to reach into growing suburban employment centers. SEPTA has also established bus service to connect several suburban regional rail stations with suburban job centers. However, it is still difficult for many corridor residents to reach these centers, and the buses are subject to the same highway congestion as automobiles. Suburban commuters face increasing congestion on corridor highways and other arterial roads for commuting to both Philadelphia and suburban job centers. Despite the 50 years of population and job shifts to the suburban portion of the SVM corridor and the coincident decline in Philadelphia's (and Reading's) population and job base, there has been no new regional rail line built to serve the growing SVM study corridor. Instead, rail transit service in the corridor today is less extensive than it was only 20 years ago when limited service was still available at stations between Norristown and Reading.

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