Many Baton Rouge residents say there is nothing worse than getting stuck in traffic, especially when you are running late. 
The LSU students that live in areas where they must use highways and bridges daily find it difficult due to the traffic that accompanies travel.
“No matter what time, I would always get stuck for like thirty minutes or more,” said LSU Early Education Senior Lindsey Baker. “It was bad.”
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development uncovered the truth behind the complaints about traffic through a study where thousands of Baton Rouge residents participated.
“What we’re trying to do is gauge how much public support we have or don’t have for widening I-10,” Rodney Mallett, Communications Director at the Department of Transportation and Development, explained.
According to the DOTD, the amount of people traveling across the I-10 bridge went from 88,500 in 2010 to 102,500 in 2013.
“We’ve seen an increase in our weekend traffic, our non-peak time traffic,” said Mallett. “We don’t have the stats for sure, but we believe it’s because more people have the freedom to travel.”
Because of this increase in traffic, Baton Rouge residents are calling for a change, and they came up with a few ideas.
“I would say either adding another lane or another bridge because if there’s an accident or something gets blocked, it blocks the whole bridge for hours,” said Baker.
Building a bridge is actually part of this feasibility study. In order to build one, they not only need to have the funding, but they also need to find the right location.
“We’ve seen a lot of improvements across the state,” Mallet said. “There is still a lot of work to be done, everybody knows that, but we need to go in thinking that we can do it.”
Now, the DOTD is calling for the support of the Baton Rouge community as they take on this new project. Nothing is finalized, but the DOTD says they are working to find a solution that will start to fix the problem.