As population grows, driven largely by immigration levels that add more than one million new residents to the United States each year, more traffic crowds our roadways. We pay the price in damage to our environment and quality of life.
Across the U.S., more people are spending more time sitting in traffic than ever before: Nationwide, the average commute increased 14 percent in the last ten years, from 22.4 minutes in 1990 to 25.5 minutes in 2000.1
Around the United States
California already has five of the nation's 20 most congested metro areas, and traffic jams statewide cost $21 billion a year in lost time and wasted fuel. Los Angeles has been the most traffic-choked urban area in the country for 15 years in a row.9 The state's official forecast says the number of miles driven on Los Angeles and Orange County roads will increase 40 percent by 2020. In Sacramento, even with $15 billion in planned road improvements, congestion will increase by 400 percent in the next 20 years.10 In the San Fernando Valley area, the average morning rush-hour speed of 31 mph is expected to fall to 16 mph by 2025.11 The total vehicle miles traveled in the region almost doubled in the last 20 years.12
In Florida, the total vehicle miles traveled doubled in the last 20 years.13 Tampa commuters sit in rush-hour traffic for 45 hours a year.14 By 2020, the number of miles traveled on Florida roads is expected to rise by 58 percent.15
In metro Atlanta, the number of miles driven each day on the area's roads is expected to rise by about 42 million miles by 2025--about half the distance from the Earth to the sun.16 The vice chairman for transportation of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce predicts that by 2010, Atlantans will spend more time in traffic than at home.17
In Chicago, rush hour now lasts almost eight hours a day. Area drivers each wasted an average of 67 hours, 104 gallons of gas, and $1,235 sitting in traffic in 2000.18
In Texas, 26 percent of freeways are congested. Vehicle traffic on the state's highways has increased by one-third in ten years.19 Traffic in Austin is expected to be worse than current Los Angeles traffic by 2025.20 Texas traffic is growing so quickly that even if public transit use were to double, the gain would be canceled out by population growth in as little as three months, according to the Texas Public Policy Foundation.21
In Salt Lake City, the average rush-hour commuter spent 20 hours in gridlock during 2000 versus three hours in 1980. The total cost of traffic congestion to Salt Lake motorists is $170 million.22
Within the next 20 years, Northern Virginia's increase in population will be two to three times greater than the planned increase in highway capacity, according to the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board.23
In many areas of the country, traffic congestion has become a major quality of life issue that impacts decisions as fundamental as where to buy a home or where to work.
While increasing roadways and alternative transportation methods can help decrease traffic congestion, the problem continues to grow if population continues to expand.
- The average urban driver spent 62 hours sitting in traffic in 2000, compared to just 16 in 1982--an increase of 288 percent.2
- More than half of major roads are crowded during rush hour, up from a third in 1982.3
- Two out of every five urban interstate miles are congested with traffic at volumes that result in significant delays. The proportion of urban interstate miles that are considered congested increased from 33 to 41 percent from 1996 to 2001.4
- The Texas Transportation Institute's annual study of traffic congestion in 75 urban areas found that in 2000 rush hours lasted longer and were more extensive than the previous year and cost the country $68 billion a year. These costs were due to from 3.6 billion hours of delay and 5.7 billion gallons of wasted fuel.5
- Aside from time wasted and fuel consumed, traffic can have larger economic consequences, such as affecting a city's ability to attract new business. Traffic congestion in Atlanta has become so bad that the Chamber of Commerce called it the greatest threat to the city's economic prosperity.6 As traffic worsens, cities often have to turn to taxpayers for funding for additional roads.7
- Increased traffic means higher greenhouse gas emissions, degraded local and regional ecosystems, and damage to natural habitats and species.8
Updated 3/03
