BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – The Brown County Planning Commission is looking for input on areas where people run into traffic headaches around the Green Bay area.
“We try to poll the public and have them let us know where they experience congestion, not just where but when,” said Planning Director Cole Runge. “We have an idea of what goes on around the area, but we don’t experience all congestion every day.”
A survey, open to the public, asks residents to think back to before the pandemic and think of their experiences on the roads. The dip in traffic the past year might skew numbers for down the road.
“That’ll give us a better look at congestion here going forward as we do the plan, because the plan is supposed to be for 5 years,” Runge said. “We’ll use this as the foundation for our study to identify where this exists and hopefully come up with ways to minimize it.”
As part of that survey, Brown County officials have introduced an interactive map to pinpoint frequent traffic congestion issues in the area.
“You should be able to easily log in and let us know what you think. What do you experience? Where and when?” Runge told WTAQ News.
Now, traffic congestion is relative. So if you’re used to bigger cities, what happens around here might not be that big of a deal. But for people who aren’t used to heavy traffic, backups can cause problems.
“It’s not as significant as Washington DC or Chicago, but it does affect us and it does affect people’s days. So we want to make sure we identify where the congestion exists, and then do the best we can to come up with techniques to address that congestion,” Runge said. “Roundabouts have been used quite a few times in the past. They’ve been very effective. However, there are some places where a roundabout might not fit, or it might not be the most appropriate or cost effective solution…Some cases if we’re experiencing congestion in areas that might have a lot of parking or something, perhaps a little parking or controlling access.”
But all of those plans and decisions are based on situation and location.
“It’s really kind of a site specific thing. We want to find out where this exists so we can take a closer look and figure out the most appropriate and most cost effective solutions for those particular areas,” Runge said.
Some specific areas the county has already identified as issues include the east side of downtown De Pere and areas around Interstate 41 and 43 interchanges, particularly the I-43 interchange at Manitowoc Road.
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