Study: Many Cities Face Los
Angeles-like Traffic Jams
Los Angeles (August 31, 2006) –
How bad is your commute going to
get? A lot worse.
Traffic
delays will increase 65 percent
and the number of congested
lane-miles on urban roads will
rise by 50 percent over the next
25 years.
Los
Angeles, home to the nation's
worst traffic today, will
continue to have the longest
delays, with trips during peak
hours taking nearly twice as
long as they do when roads are
free-flowing. But LA won't be
alone. Several cities face the
dubious honor of having Los
Angeles-like gridlock.
By 2030,
drivers in 11 metro areas –
Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago,
Denver, Las Vegas, Miami,
Minneapolis/St. Paul, Portland,
San Francisco-Oakland,
Seattle-Tacoma, and Washington,
D.C. - will be stuck in daily
traffic jams that are as bad as
or worse than today's infamous
bottlenecks in Los Angeles,
according to a new Reason
Foundation study. In those
cities it will take at least 75
percent longer to make a trip
during peak hours than off-peak
periods. So, for example, a trip
that is supposed to take 30
minutes would take over 52
minutes.
Today,
only four cities (LA, Chicago,
San Francisco, and Washington,
D.C.) experience travel time
delays of even 50 percent. But,
because road capacity is failing
to keep up with demand and
population growth, the Reason
study finds that a whopping 30
cities will be experiencing
daily delays that make rush hour
trips 50 percent longer than
off-peak journeys. Los Angeles
and the other 11 cities listed
above will be joined in
congestion purgatory by Austin,
Boston, Bridgeport-Stamford
(CT), Charlotte, Dallas-Fort
Worth, Detroit, Houston, New
York City-Newark (NJ), Orlando,
Philadelphia, Phoenix-Mesa,
Riverside-San Bernardino,
Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San
Diego, San Jose, Tampa-St.
Petersburg, and Tucson.
And
even in smaller cities, traffic
congestion will worsen
substantially over the next two
decades. Boise, Idaho, for
instance, will see its
congestion more than double
and Albany, New York,
will experience almost triple
its current congestion levels.
