Clogged roads cost Americans $121B in wasted time, fuel in 2011: report
AUSTIN, Texas The nation's commuters are adapting to increasing traffic congestion by building delays into their schedules, but at a cost of $121 billion in wasted time and fuel, according to an annual study of national driving patterns released Tuesday.
The new report from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute found that Americans wasted an average of $818 each sitting in traffic in 2011. That also meant more carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere.
The worst commute in the country? Washington. Commuters in the nation's capital needed almost three hours for a trip that should take 30 minutes without traffic, according to the report. That compares to the least congested city — Pensacola, Fla. — where commuters needed only nine extra minutes.
On average, Americans allowed for an hour of driving time for a trip that would take 20 minutes without traffic. The total nationwide added up to 5.5 billion additional hours that Americans spent in their cars during 2011.
The institute, part of Texas A&M University, uses 30 years of traffic data, and its annual reports are one of the key tools used by experts to solve traffic problems. Researchers study how commuters adapt their travel plans when they have urgent appointments in highly congested areas based on data gathered from state transportation agencies, private companies and academic entities that monitor traffic issues.
When all costs are totaled, the cost of traffic congestion to Americans was up $1 billion over 2010 for a total of $121 billion. For commercial truck drivers alone, wasted time and diesel fuel amounted to $27 billion.
The latest study also found that, after Washington, the most congested cities in 2011 were Los Angeles, San Francisco-Oakland, New York-Newark, Boston, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia and Seattle.
New to the report this year is the amount of additional carbon dioxide that gets released into the atmosphere because of clogged roads. In 2011, that total was 56 billion pounds of additional carbon dioxide, or the equivalent of 380 pounds per commuter.
The statistic "points to the importance of implementing transportation improvements to reduce congestion," researcher and co-author David Schrank said.
The study also determined that Americans burned 2.9 billion gallons of gasoline while sitting in congestion, a slight improvement over the peak in 2005 when commuters wasted 3.2 billion gallons.
Researchers said 2005 remains the worst year recording for traffic congestion, but warn that recent improvement may be directly related to the recession. As the economy picks up again, the study's authors warn, so might road congestion.
The institute notes that every community is unique and requires different, multi-faceted approaches to solving congestion.
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I have driven across this great country twice, and let me tell you a little secret: It's mostly empty space.
The problem is as someone else said, everyone tries to build all this stuff in big cities. That obviously won't work.
I myself on the other hand work at home. I never have to drive anywhere. Besides our one car, my family and I have bikes and LOVE using them.
Besides NEWSTER9O2LO, the policy of having one child per couple always leads to murder, forced abortions etc... It is the ultimate evil policy of a totalitarian dictatorship. If you want to live in such a society, then feel free to move to Iran, North Korea or China.
Why does it take so long for police to clear the road after a serious accident and investigate the scene?
If the incident is on a major expressway during rush hour, what is the $ cost of a one hour investigation?
Is it more or less than the cost of the loss of life and property (based on average legal $ awarded)?. How can technology speed accident investigations to clear the expensive vital arteries quicker?
Why is rapid transit so expensive to build? What elements of the cost have increased the most in the last 10 years and why? How can these costs be brought down through better technology?
why does it cost so much to build extra freeway lanes? what federal standard requires that there be a 6-foot shoulder all along the freeway, requiring expensive replacement of bridges whenever a lane is added, even to a short stretch of bottleneck freeway? Can there be areas of the freeway with less shoulder and how can this be made safe for the driving experience?
Sounds like these types of question needs to be answered, and then we need protection from lawyers who will sue to make money whenever there is any deviation from the old established inefficient ways of running our transportation system. Maybe tort reform is part of the transportation solution? Nah of all the solutions, this one is the most problematic. Oh well, what the heck, it is only $121 billion we are wasting.
Congestion is lack of space by definition. 90% of drivers purposefully eliminate space when they see traffic.
Traffic must flow in three of four directions or you'll soon have congestion. 90% of drivers actively interfere with the ability of fellow drivers to change lanes.
Merge areas are clearly marked well before you reach them. 90% of drivers eliminate space as they approach merge points - whether they be mergers or in the lane receiving them.