The High Cost of Congestion    

A majority of the people in the United States choose to travel by automobile. This choice provides the most freedom for the businessperson that works late, the parent that picks up the children and dry-cleaning after work, or the person that just wants to get home the most convenient possible way.  Unfortunately, these mobility patterns and habits add to congestion, which has economic and mobility impacts.  Some facts from the Texas Transportation Institute’s 2005 Urban Mobility Report that looked at congestion issues in 85 urban areas across the US (http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/):

Congestion continues to grow in America’s urban areas. Despite a slow growth in jobs and travel in 2003, congestion caused 3.7 billion hours of travel delay and 2.3 billion gallons of wasted fuel, an increase of 79 million hours and 69 million gallons from 2002 to a total cost of more than $63 billion.

Congestion affects more of the roads, trips and time of day. The worst congestion levels increased from 12% to 40% of peak period travel. And free-flowing travel is less than half of the amount in 1982.  The average delay per peak traveler in the 85 urban areas is 47 hours.

Congestion has grown in areas of every size. Measures in all of the population size categories show more severe congestion that lasts a longer period of time and affects more of the transportation network in 2003 than in 1982. The average annual delay for every person using motorized travel in the peak periods in the 85 urban areas studied climbed from 16 hours in 1982 to 47 hours in 2003. Congestion has spread significantly over the 20 years of the study. A few notable changes from 1982 to 2003 include:

¨ The number of hours of the day when congestion might be encountered has grown from about 4.5 hours to about 7.1 hours.

¨ The amount of traffic experiencing congested conditions in the peak travel periods (three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon) has doubled in 20 years of the study from 32 percent in 1982 to 67 percent in 2003. This means that two of every three cars experience congestion in their morning or evening trip.

¨ The percentage of the major roadway system that is congested has risen from 34 percent in 1982 to 59 percent in 2003.

¨ Traffic congestion is worse in the larger urban areas than in the smaller ones. Traffic congestion levels have increased in every area since 1982. Congestion extends to more time of the day, more roads, affects more of the travel and creates more extra travel time than in the past.

So, how do we keep the "mobile" in mobility?  Addressing this problem will require solutions other than building more roads.  While road construction has been a popular solution to congestion relief, a broader range of solutions is required to successfully address mobility in the future.  These solutions include:

More capacity— More road and public transportation improvement projects are part of the equation. New streets and urban freeways will be needed to serve new developments; public transportation improvements are particularly important in congested corridors and to serve major activity centers; and, toll highways and toll lanes are being used more frequently in urban corridors. Capacity expansions are also important additions for freeway to-freeway interchanges and connections to ports, rail yards, intermodal terminals and other major activity centers for people and freight transportation.

Greater efficiency—More efficient operation of roads and public transportation can provide more productivity from the existing system at relatively low cost. Some of these can be accelerated by information technology, some are the result of educating travelers about their options, and some are the result of providing a more diverse set of travel and development options than are currently available. This report presents information on the effect of five prominent operational treatments.

Manage the demand—The way that travelers use the transportation network can be modified to accommodate more demand. Using the telephone or internet for certain trips, traveling in off-peak hours and using public transportation and carpools are examples.  Projects that use tolls or pricing incentives can be tailored to meet both transportation needs and economic equity concerns. The key will be to provide better conditions and more travel options for shopping, school, health care and a variety of other activities.

Development patterns—There are a variety of techniques that are being tested in urban areas to change the way that commercial, office and residential developments occur. These also appear to be part, but not all, of the solution. Sustaining the urban “quality of life” and gaining an increment of economic development without the typical increment of mobility decline is one way to state this goal.

Realistic expectations are also part of the solution. Large urban areas will be congested. Some locations near key activity centers in smaller urban areas will also be congested. But congestion does not have to be an all-day event. Identifying solutions and funding sources that meet a variety of community goals is challenging enough without attempting to eliminate congestion in all locations. The solutions will vary not only by the state or city they are implemented in, but also by the type of development, the level of activity and constraints in particular sub-regions, neighborhoods and activity centers. Portions of a city might be more amenable to construction solutions, other areas might use more demand management, efficiency improvements and land use pattern or redevelopment solutions.