Exploring Tourism Impacts: Are Tourists to Blame for Asheville's Traffic Woes?

While tourism has served as a pillar of Asheville’s local economy since the nineteenth century, it’s no secret that visitors and in-migration are testing the limits of the city’s infrastructure. In a 2019 survey on tourism impacts by the Buncombe County TDA, residents across the city and county cited traffic and parking needs as issues to be addressed. 

These concerns are valid; Asheville’s roadways see millions of visitors each year. In 2019, the region welcomed around 11 million tourists, 82% of whom drove in by car. And because Asheville’s downtown restaurant and bar scene tops the list of the area’s tourist attractions — right after the Blue Ridge Mountains, of course — that means a lot of additional cars competing for space on the road each day in the city's downtown core.

But, we can’t pin all of Asheville’s infrastructure problems on the bogeyman of tourism. The traffic that overwhelms the city’s streets and highways is created in large part by commuters. Of the area’s workers, 76% drive a single-occupancy vehicle to their place of work. More than 67,000 people commute to Asheville from surrounding areas each day, with an additional 22,000 residents commuting within city limits, and another 55,000 city and county residents commuting for purposes other than work. That's a total of 144,000 full-time residents on the road daily, with only a small fraction of commuters traveling by alternative means.

Because Asheville lacks sufficient public transportation systems to serve all its residents and visitors, traveling by car is, for many, the only option. Commuter demand thus requires continued city and county investment in traffic and parking needs, an interchange that contributes to urban sprawl and the high cost of housing. Where residents and visitors rely on single-occupancy vehicles, the potential to optimize land use for affordable housing shrinks as space must be dedicated to parking and roadway expansion.

So, what are design strategies that might help?

The development of affordable housing within city limits is key to Asheville’s traffic problem. With food service and hospitality jobs concentrated in the center city, conveniently located affordable housing options could shorten the commute for many of these workers and alleviate traffic on the major highways that connect county to city.

Asheville can look to other midsize U.S. cities for ideas on how to encourage tourists and residents to leave cars at home. Take Lincoln, Nebraska, for example, where city officials are testing a 12-passenger, driverless shuttle to cart folks around the city’s downtown core. Or look at South Bend, Indiana, where an employer-subsidized ridesharing program helps shift workers get to work where public transportation isn’t available.

This fall, Thrive Asheville is bringing leaders together to explore how we can support a robust tourism sector while protecting our environment and a high quality of life for all residents. When we look at the dual challenge of traffic and parking, maybe the question isn’t who is to blame — residents or tourists — but what we can do to make it better for everyone. What investments can be shared among public sources and the tourism sector to increase the ease with which residents and tourists move in and around our community?

Stay tuned to keep learning with us!