90
THE COUNTY’S TRANSPORTATION NETWORK
Traffic Volume
As Montgomery County’s population has increased,
vehicle traffic has increased as well. And despite lower
traffic volumes lately—mostly due to the recent
economic downturn—traffic volumes are much higher
than historical levels.
The most heavily travelled road in the county is the
Pennsylvania Turnpike, with close to 120,000 vehicles
per day. Other roads in Montgomery County have had
significant increases in traffic over the last thirty years.
The average number of miles driven per day in
Montgomery County has fluctuated for the last 20 years.
In 2011, drivers drove an average 18 million miles per
day, down slightly from 2007, when it was 19.4 million
miles per day. This represents more than a quarter of the
total roadway miles driven in the five-county
Philadelphia metropolitan region.
Travel times have increased as well. In 1990, the average
Montgomery County worker was on the road for 22.5
minutes for the daily commute to work—45 minutes
roundtrip. By 2000, this travel time had increased to 26.5
minutes, or a 53 minute roundtrip. And by 2010, the
average daily commute took 27.4 minutes each way.
This is not an insignificant amount of time when added
up over a year. Assuming a 5 day work week and 50
weeks of work per year, that’s 9.5 days of one’s year
spent commuting to work! The county’s suburban
location, the distribution of jobs from Philadelphia’s core
to various economic centers across the region, and
people’s general preference to drive alone all add to this
trend of longer commutes.
FIGURE 56:
Traffic Volume on Montgomery County’s Major Roadways
ROADWAY
1980
2000
Schuylkill Expressway (I-76)
63,000
102,000
Blue Route (I-476)
20,154
103,145
Route 422
11,032
56,998
Route 100
17,869
32,173
Northeast Extension—PA Turnpike (I-476)
16,717
56,542
Route 309 Expressway
29,854
48,109
PA Turnpike (I-276)
41,693
105,584
Total
192,319
504,551
2010
101,300
105,890
65,483
30,446
65,483
42,908
118,174
529,684
Sources: Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission
FIGURE 57:
Average Annual Daily Traffic Counts
Source: Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission
Highways like Route 422
have had significant
increases in commuter
traffic as residential
development has spread
out from King of Prussia.
¯
Pottstown
Norristown
Lansdale
Collegeville
Jenkintown
Conshohocken
476
276
76
476
t
u
422
t
u
202
611
100
309
Hatboro
Ambler
Pennsburg
73
663
29
29
73
Less than 10,000 cars per day
10,000 to less than 30,000 cars per day
30,000 to less than 60,000 cars per day
60,000 cars or greater
