JACKSON, Wyo. — On Monday, August 19, Town Council unanimously agreed to direct County Public Works to develop a Travel Demand Management (TDM) program to reduce traffic on High School Road by 35% (roughly 600-650 cars) by June 2028.
The TDM program, which will be developed in partnership with the Teton County School District, outlines several strategies to reduce traffic during peak hours.
“We wanted to have a sense of what intersection improvements are needed,” Regional Transportation Planning Administrator Charlotte Frei said during the Town Council meeting. “The most challenging part of day is the peak morning school bell hour. We are giving ourselves a four year runway to see what teachers and students need. We are looking into a carpool matching program in order to reduce traffic delays.”
Frei presented recent updates to the West Jackson Subarea Transportation Study, which was conducted this past fall to inform the future TDM program. According to Frei, the study followed a two phase process analyzing 12 intersections in west Jackson. Study results found that the High School Road and Gregory Lane intersection creates the largest traffic delays in west Jackson. The study predicts that operations will deteriorate along High School Road and the north/south portion of South Park Loop Road. Most of the excessive delays will occur on side streets controlled by stop signs.
According to the staff report, if the TDM program’s traffic reduction target is not achieved by 2028, staff will initiate design improvements for intersections at High School Road and Gregory Lane and High School Road and Middle School Road. Public engagement meetings determined that most residents prefer roundabouts in the study area instead of traffic lights.
Three traffic mitigation improvements that staff recommends in the TDM program include developing a student pick-up/drop-off strategy, a 2025 traffic count program and improvements to biking, walking and transit access.
Friends of Pathways Communications and Advocacy Director Sam Petri told Town Council that the goal is to get more people out of their vehicles.
“We do have neighborhoods next to schools, so it is possible to get around these areas with pathways,” Petri said. “This plan may save money by getting people to ride the bus or ride bikes.”
An additional key strategy of the program is to require developers to plan for multimodal transportation infrastructure, including transit and pathway access, when constructing new buildings.
Councilor Jim Rooks said that he appreciated the timeliness of the traffic study while Town Council reviews moratorium building regulations.
“We would like to see more concrete goals, even to celebrate bite size successes,” Rooks said. “Liaison with the schools is critical. It’s pretty easy to say that this has been tried lots of times but there are successful models in the country.”
Looking toward future needs, Councilor Jonathan Schechter said that “we all know that we will have increases in traffic.”
In response, Frei said that there’s potential for traffic to grow on High School Road with the projected construction of the new Central Wyoming College campus, but a current traffic baseline needs to be established in conjunction with the new Land Development Regulation guidelines. According to Frei, the TDM project will be developed with traffic growth in mind to project possible future transportation needs.
