Bumper-to-bumper traffic is America’s collective nightmare, and like the movie Groundhog Day it repeats on a daily basis.
Congestion consumes billions of gallons of fuel, wastes hundreds of billions of dollars in productivity and causes billions of stress headaches. Yet over 100 million automobile commuters each day feel like they have little option. “We put so much of our national wealth and our identity into the whole motoring thing,” says James Howard Kunstler, author of Geography of Nowhere, “that we can’t imagine doing something different.”
Anthony Downs, author of Stuck in Traffic has identified four reasons for America’s congestion problem, also applicable to most European and Asian economies:
- first, most of us work during the same hours of the day;
- second, the country’s economic success has allowed households to buy multiple cars;
- third, there are more people now than when most roadways were conceived;
- fourth, more cars means more accidents which means more delays.
In other words, this problem isn’t going anywhere. So the Daily Beast set out to figure out the worst of the worst. It was a two-step process, done with data from traffic-tracking firm INRIX, which culls information nationwide from more than 1.5 million GPS units, mostly in freight trucks.
First step was ranking the metropolitan areas with the worst rush-hour congestion. The order is based on the peak hour Travel Time Index (TTI) for the metropolitan area each highway is in. TTI is a measure of how much longer it takes to complete a road journey during peak congestion hours compared to free-flow hours. (Peak hours are defined as 6 a.m. to 10a.m., and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.) Speeds during non-peak hours are used by INRIX to establish this free-flow baseline.
After determining the 75 worst metro areas, then the worst highway was found in each, defined as the most hours of bottleneck congestion, as reported by INRIX. The rankings then provide a still deeper look—at the most congested bottleneck segment for the worst highway in each area.
Here are the top 18, starting with Hampton Roads:
- #18, I-264, Virginia Beach/Norfolk, VA Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 97 Worst bottleneck: Westbound, City Hall Ave/Exit 10 Length of worst bottleneck: .15 mi Weekly hours of congestion on worst bottleneck: 28 Speed of worst bottleneck when congested: 8.9 mph
Commuter Buzz: “We’re the second-largest region in the state by population and we had a year in which there’s no interstate funding—I just didn’t want to set that precedent,” Aubrey Layne told the Virginian-Pilot in December 2009, after securing a $7.7 million in state funds for updates to the I-64/264 interchange. - #17, I-494, Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 184
- #16, I-5, Portland, OR Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 238
- #15, Loop 820, surrounds Dallas-Fort Worth Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 172
- #14, Southeast Expressway, Boston, MA Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 305
- #13, I-10, Baton Rouge, LA Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 93
- #12, Loop 610, surrounds Houston Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 189
- #11, Bayshore Freeway (US 101), San Jose, CA Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 231
- #10, Airport Expressway (State Road 112), Miami Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 183
- #9, Kennedy Expressway, Chicago, IL Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 712
- #8, I-95, Bridgeport, CT Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 272
- #7, I-5, Seattle, WA Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 256
- #6, Cross Bronx Expressway, New York City, NY Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 421
- #5, James Lick Freeway (US 101), San Francisco, CA Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 190
- #4, I-35, Austin, TX Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 460
- #3, Capital Beltway, surrounds Washington, DC Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 194
- #2, Lunalilo Freeway (H-1), Honolulu, HI Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 347
- #1, Hollywood Freeway, Los Angeles, CA Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 686
- #19, San Diego Freeway (I-5), San Diego, CA
- #20, Schuylkill Expressway, Philadelphia, PA
- #21, Baltimore Beltway, surrounds Baltimore, MD
- #22, I-75, Atlanta, GA
- #23, I-275, Tampa, FL
- #24, I-25, Denver, CO
- #25, Riverside Freeway, Riverside, CA
- #26, Ronald Reagan Freeway, Oxnard, CA
- #27, I-10, New Orleans, LA
- #28, I-91, New Haven, CT
- #29, Papago Freeway (I-10), Phoenix, AZ
- #30, Penn Lincoln Parkway (I-376), Pittsburgh, PA
- #31, Capital City Freeway, Sacramento, CA
- #32, I-15, Las Vegas, NV
- #33, I-84, Hartford, CT
- #34, I-94, Milwaukee, WI
- #35, East Independence Blvd, Charlotte, NC
- #36, I-75, Cincinnati, OH
- #37, I-65, Birmingham, AL
- #38, Loop 410, surrounds San Antonio, TX
- #39, Edsel Ford Freeway (I-94), Detroit, MI
- #40, I-10, El Paso, TX
- #41, I-195, Providence, RI
- #42, I-90, Cleveland, OH
- #43, I-26, Charleston, SC
- #44, I-40, Nashville, TN
- #45, I-270, St. Louis, MO
- #46, I 4, Orlando, FL
- #47, I-24, Chattanooga, TN
- #48, I-95, Jacksonville, FL
- #49, I-65, Louisville, KY
- #50, I-40, Raleigh, NC
And the rest of the top 50 worst commutes:
Last year, the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization reached pretty much the same conclusion. It singled out the Downtown Tunnel as having the longest recurring afternoon delay in the region, about triple any other thoroughfare.
“Pound for pound, the Downtown Tunnel is about as bad as it gets for congestion,” said Dwight Farmer, the organization’s executive director.
“That’s not necessarily something to be proud of, but it surely makes our case – we need some help.”
Excerpts and photo from The Daily Beast; Clark Merrefield was the chief reporter and writer for this ranking. Additional reporting by Debbie Messina, The Virginian-Pilot.
2 comments
CG
February 23, 2010 at 2:27 pm (UTC -4)
The Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO) is having its first Citizen Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC) meeting on Thursday, March 11th at 5 p.m. at 723 Woodlake Drive, Chesapeake, VA. This is a step toward developing a dialogue between area residents and the HRTPO staff about congestion, transportation alternatives, future options, and topics related to improving the commute times mentioned in this article.
Contact Carlos Gonzalez, Public Involvement Administrator, at (757) 420-8300 for more information or visit http://www.hrtpo.org to learn more about the HRTPO.
HR Partnership
February 25, 2010 at 9:02 am (UTC -4)
Hampton Roads’ peak traffic hour — 4 p.m. Friday — is 10th worst in the nation
By Austin Bogues 247-4536
11:20 p.m. EST, February 24, 2010
If you’re trying to get somewhere in a hurry in Hampton Roads, 4 p.m. Friday might not be the best time.
In fact, it’s the worst time. Any travel during that hour, which is the peak traffic hour in Hampton Roads, will take 35 percent longer than normal.
And of all the peak traffic hours in the nation, 4 p.m. Friday in Hampton Roads ranks 10th out of 108 metropolitan regions, according to a new study from Inrix, a national company that tracks traffic data.
Overall, the region ranks 31st nationwide for worst traffic congestion, slightly higher than our population rank among metro areas. The study has one transportation leader calling anew for more money to fund roads and transit projects in the region.
“It underscores the necessity for obtaining a reliable dedicated revenue source for transportation,” said Aubrey Layne, a Hampton Roads representative on the Commonwealth Transportation Board, which allocates state funding for road projects.
Layne said it is important that the region invest more heavily in projects like light rail, high-speed rail, bus service and other transit projects. “We all know we can’t build roads out of this situation.”
Budget cuts have led to Hampton Roads receiving far less from the state for interstate construction. Late last year, the Commonwealth Transportation Board slashed $52.5 million in projects for Hampton Roads.
The traffic study, which was conducted by electronic tagging of 1.7 million vehicles on the road, found some interesting results on the national scale. Overall in the past few years, traffic congestion has eased.
The chief reason for the decline: the economy.
Jim Bak, a spokesman for Inrix, said that as unemployment rises, fewer cars travel during rush hour. “We are seeing those folks are getting up to look for work, running errands or taking other discretionary trips during the day. Traffic has risen during other hours of the day.”
Bak also said the stimulus bill Congress passed last year has had an effect on traffic.
“We’re seeing traffic congestion rise during off-peak hours because that’s when construction takes place on roadways.”
Copyright © 2010, Newport News, Va., Daily Press
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-local_traffic_0225feb25,0,4984137.story