New Mexico Administrative Code › Title 18 - TRANSPORTATION AND HIGHWAYS › Chapter 31 - CLASSIFICATION AND DESIGN STANDARDS FOR HIGHWAYS › Part 6 - STATE HIGHWAY ACCESS MANAGEMENT REQUIREMENTS › Section 18.31.6.15 - TRAFFIC ENGINEERING EVALUATION

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 13, July 16, 2024
A.
General:
A traffic
				engineering evaluation shall be required for all proposed access points that
				are requested along the state highway system, to be submitted with the access
				permit application (see Paragraph (1) of Subsection D of
				18.31.6.14
				NMAC). The extent of the traffic engineering evaluation is directly related the
				scope of the highway improvement under consideration, or to the size and type
				of land use for which access is requested. In this section, operational
				performance standards, traffic data requirements and traffic signal
				considerations are described. Additional information regarding traffic
				engineering evaluation requisites are provided in Section 15 of the
state access management manual
. The specific traffic study
				process that shall be followed to address the traffic engineering evaluation
				requirement for a land development project are described in
				18.31.6.16
				NMAC. The criteria that shall be used to determine when speed-change lanes are
				required or should be considered at existing or proposed access points along
				the state highway system are defined in
				18.31.6.17
				NMAC. Design standards applicable to the traffic engineering evaluation are
				provided in
				18.31.6.18
				NMAC and are further described in section 18 of the
state access
				management manual
.
B.
Scope of evaluation:
A traffic engineering evaluation shall be
				required when new or modified access facilities are proposed along a state
				highway to ensure that the operational characteristics of all state highways
				are maintained at acceptable levels. The evaluation may include, but is not
				limited to, roadway and intersection level of service calculations, driveway
				and intersection location and spacing assessments, traffic signal warrant and
				systems analyses, roadway and intersection design, and safety analysis. The
				department shall require a traffic engineering evaluation of access issues for
				land development projects that request access to a state highway, directly or
				indirectly, and for highway improvement projects (see Subsection AV of
				18.31.6.7
				NMAC). The traffic engineering evaluation shall be performed by a registered
				engineer, authorized under New Mexico Engineering and Surveying Practice Act
				(Sections 61-23-12 NMSA 1978 through 61-23-13 NMSA 1978).
C.
Traffic operational
				performance:
The operational performance of a highway segment,
				intersection or access facility is described by level of service (LOS). Level
				of service is a quantitative measure of roadway or intersection operations and
				vehicle capacity. Level of service standards are defined by access category.
				level of service (LOS) F shall not be accepted for individual
				movements.
D.
Establishing
				existing traffic conditions:
Engineering evaluations of traffic and
				roadway conditions on state highways should be based on current traffic count
				information. The traffic data will be considered current if it is or has been
				collected within one year of the date that a scoping meeting is held between
				the permittee and the district traffic engineer, or if otherwise approved for
				use by the district traffic engineer.
(1)
				Defining the data collection period: The permittee should recommend the periods
				for traffic data collection at the traffic analysis scoping meeting held
				between the permittee and the department district traffic engineer. The periods
				for traffic data collection may include typical weekday conditions, special
				traffic conditions, or both.
(2)
				Typical weekday traffic conditions: Traffic data representing typical weekday
				conditions should be obtained on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, and may be
				obtained on Monday or Friday.
(3)
				Special traffic conditions: Special traffic conditions typically occur from
				1900 to 2400 hours and from 0000 to 0600 hours on weekdays, and throughout the
				day on Saturday and Sunday. The duration of special traffic counts should be
				based on the activity or event and be sufficient to capture the peak travel
				condition.
(4) Traffic data for
				traffic signal warrant analysis: A minimum of 12 hours of traffic count data
				for a representative day shall be obtained when conducting a traffic signal
				warrant analysis. Manual intersection turn movement counts shall be conducted
				for at least eight of the 12 hours. The remaining four hours of data may be
				obtained using counting equipment on the intersection approaches, or by
				conducting a 12-hour intersection turn movement count. It is desirable to
				conduct an eight-hour manual turn movement count supplemented by 24-hour
				machine counts on each intersection approach when evaluating the need for
				traffic signal control on a state highway.