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Comprehensive Plan Transportation Element Overall, population growth and growth in the number and length of trips are the primary contributors to increased transportation demand. In order to maintain the existing quality of life in the community, this demand must be met by providing appropriate roadway and transit capacity, by maximizing the efficient use of the transportation system, and by coordinating land use and transportation. Roadway Capacity Overall, roadway levels -of -service have declined in recent years in Indian River County. The primary cause of the lower service levels is that the demand for the transportation system (as reflected in growth in population, trips, and miles traveled) has increased faster than the supply of new transportation facilities. One indication of new capacity is the increase in roadway system centerline miles. In the past decade, roadway centerline mileage increased only 4.5%, far below the growth in population and the growth of daily person trips. Consequently, the average commute time increased 9.1 % in Indian River County. One reason for the lack of growth in the supply of transportation facilities is the increase in cost in providing those facilities. At the same time, many of the transportation revenue sources, particularly at the state and federal level, have experienced stagnant or negative growth. For example, the federal gas tax has remained constant at 18.4 cents/gallon since 1982. Recognizing that revenue shortfalls were jeopardizing the implementation of the county's long range transportation plan, the county took the initiative to increase transportation revenues locally. These increases have enabled the county to make substantial progress in delivering new roadway capacity. Level of Service Assessment According to Rule 945, each local government in the state must establish a roadway level of service in its comprehensive plan. As indicated in the FDOT Quality and Level of Service Manual, roadway level of service is a measure of user satisfaction of a roadway expressed in letter -grade format, from "A" to "F", based on travel speed and volume of traffic on various classifications of roadways. Adopted and actual levels of service on the Indian River County roadway network appear in Table 4.7.1. • Level of Service Standard Throughout Florida, most local governments have adopted Level of Service "D" as their roadway system standard. In the urbanized areas of the state, a level of service higher than "C" is not even achievable on roadways other than freeways and multi -lane highways that have few signals. Therefore, LOS "C" is the highest achievable level of service for roadways that carry most of the traffic in Indian River County. While "C" is in many instances possible to achieve, the County (as well as all of the municipalities in the county) have established "D" as the adopted level of service standard. Although level of service "D" implies acceptance of sub -standard roadway operating conditions, there is, in actuality, little difference to the user between roadway level of service "C" and "D". For example, the difference between LOS "C" and "D" on a typical arterial roadway with more Community Development Department Indian River County 51