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The gridlock report: One more case for telecommuting

Posted Sep 18th 2007 6:00PM by Julie Tilsner (RSS feed)
Filed under: Newspapers, Rants and raves, Next big thing, Workspace

Tell me something I didn't know.

Los Angeles and Orange Counties reign supreme when it comes to the amount of time we residents sit in traffic jams. (We're at or near the tops in housing prices and foreclosures, too, but that's fodder for another post).

My BloggingStocks colleague Tom Barlow weighed in on the Texas Transportation Institute's newly released study just today. But because I often actually sit in this traffic, I couldn't muster his same sense of mirth. Or is that schadenfreude?

Continue reading The gridlock report: One more case for telecommuting

Traffic snarls steal a week of your life every year

Posted Sep 18th 2007 5:40PM by Tom Barlow (RSS feed)
Filed under: Consumer experience, Economic data, Personal finance

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/34/67182992_67f4a59a08_m.jpgAccording to a newly issued report, the average American spends almost a full work week each year trapped in traffic, burning up an extra 26 gallons of gas. The Texas Transportation Institute's 2007 Urban Mobility Report estimates the cost of this problem at $710 per traveler, not including the price of blood pressure medication, cell phone minutes used and horn-exacerbated hearing loss. The results represent a 270% growth in delay time since 1982.

Among very large urban areas, you drivers in Los Angeles and environs are the most tortured, with 72 hours of your life squandered in traffic per year, followed by SF, DC, and Atlanta at 60 hours, Dallas/Ft. Worth at 58, and Houston at 56 hours. The northeastern seaboard cities all finished in the 38-46 hours-wasted range.

If you hate congestion, you might consider moving to Buffalo (11 hours), Cleveland (13 hours), Pittsburgh (16 hours) or Kansas City (17 hours). Of course, the extra 60 hours Californians spend on the freeway could be spent with the top down, catching rays, something Buffalo drivers might willingly trade for when zipping home quickly in the midst of winter.

Among the steps the study points out that can reduce congestion are
  • Freeway entrance ramp metering
  • Freeway incident management programs (I humbly suggest shooting those who slow down to rubberneck at accident sites)
  • Traffic signal coordination
  • Increase roadway capacity (duh)

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Last updated: November 14, 2009: 07:37 AM

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