WEST BATON ROUGE (WBRZ) - You've seen it. You've sat in it. And some folks are just plain tired of the traffic in Baton Rouge.
Jamie Setze, the executive director for the Capital Region Planning Commission, said the open house held Tuesday evening is for residents to give suggestions on how to solve major traffic and infrastructure issues.
"If you're on the interstate and there's an incident, how do you get somewhere else to get around that problem? And that is one of the biggest problems we have," Setze said.
Residents spent the evening looking at maps, taking online surveys and talking one on one with those who will implement the changes. Mary Wilson Arrasmith lives and works in West Baton Rouge and said she shared her concerns through an online survey.
"To lighten the congestion with some mass transit options, some ride sharing perhaps a bus or a shuttle system would really help us to lessen the amount of cars on the roadway," Arrasmith said.
On Tuesday morning, a traffic jam caused a major back-up over the river and onto I-10 and I-12. It's problems like this that officials hope to put an end to.
"Some of those short-terms projects are moving the Washington Street Exit from the foot of the bridge back onto Interstate one-ten. DOTD will soon be widening interstate ten from Highland Rd. to Hwy. 73 and their projects on the books that will be moving forward shortly," Setze said.
But the commission's long-term plan will reportedly take 25 years to complete.
"A new bridge location, may potentially a loop, widening of Nicholson to account for that new bridge and the continued widening of I-10 and I-12 outside of the metro area all the way to Hammond," Setze said.