Traffic Level of Service

Transportation Level of Service: On November 12, I attended a meeting with representatives from San Joaquin Council of Governments (COG), the County and other cities in the County to discuss the issue of Levels of Service (LOS) for transportation improvements.

LOS is a traffic engineering measure used to describe operating conditions for roadways and other transportation facilities. The idea behind the development of LOS was to quantify driver’ perceptions of the operating conditions they experienced while driving. Driving conditions where a driver encountered no limitations were rated highest, and drivers who experienced significant delays or limitations on their ability to move freely were rated lower. The initial six-step scale that was created rated free flowing, unencumbered traffic as an “A,” while slow, stopped or impaired traffic was rated as low as an “F.”

Over time, the use of LOS has become a standard measuring tool used not only to quantify existing conditions, but also more frequently to identify environmental impacts and mitigation requirements for new projects. Unfortunately, the use of LOS in some cases has been stretched beyond its intended use, and as development and growth patterns have evolved, the use of LOS as an effective planning tool has been challenged. Thus COG and other local agencies (including Manteca) are revisiting the adopted LOS standards to ensure that planning for future growth is accomplished in a realistic and cost-effective manner to provide infrastructure suitable to the needs of the community.

I'm hopeful that looking at other qualitative measures for traffic will reduce the need to create huge traffic intersections for traffic issues that occur less than one hour per day. This in turn, will reduce the overall cost of development and hopefully spur more economic growth in the communtiy.