Cost of traffic congestion in U.S. reached $115 billion in '09, 3.9 billion gallons gas wasted

[The Straight Story]

Cost of traffic congestion in U.S. reached $115 billion in '09, up from $24 billion in '82, report says - NBC News

Annual Urban Mobility Report
2010 Annual Urban Mobility Report

The total amount of wasted fuel in the 439 urban areas was approximately 3.9 billion gallons
in 2009

The 2010 Urban Mobility Report builds on previous Urban Mobility Reports with an improved methodology and expanded coverage of the nation's urban congestion problem and solutions. The links below provide information on long-term congestion trends, the most recent congestion comparisons and a description of many congestion improvement strategies. All of the statistics have been recalculated with the new method to provide a consistent picture of the congestion challenge. As with previous methodology improvements, readers, writers and analysts are cautioned against using congestion data from the 2009 Report. All of the measures, plus a few more, have been updated and included in this report.

http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/report/

[geckosfeet]

1. I sat in traffic for nearly 90 minutes Tuesday morning. Used a quarter tank

of gas - about 2.5 gallons.

Multiply that by the hundreds of thousands of cars across the northeast that sat in snow snarled traffic on Tuesday.

That's my gas usage for over five years. Burned up in two hours due to standing traffic.

We know this happening all across the world but government fails to even admit that there is something wrong with the picture.

[ixion]

2. And that is JUST the gas... does not include:

1) People's lost time.
2) Increase in stress costs both wellness and money.
3) Increase in pollution.
4) Wear and tear on vehicle.

And there are more. And yet, most jobs still want you on site, even though the work could be done remotely.

We won't learn until it's too late, I'm afraid.

[BlueJazz]

3. Part of the problem is the idiocy of (some) traffic light programming.

Here in Florida, it seems the powers that be, actually go out of their way to:
1. Make sure that large amounts of traffic stop at a light in order to let ONE car turn right. (if the light would have stayed green for 15 more seconds, the turning car could have made the turn without stopping 27 cars)
2. Synchronize the lights so that...after sitting at a light for 2 minutes the next light catches all the cars again and the
NEXT light catches all the cars again...etc..etc.. :mad:
3. Make sure that a traffic light stays red for 2 minutes when there isn't a car within 3 blocks going through the opposing green light.


My biggest bitch: Road construction ...not the road construction itself but the fact that the workers tear up the sensors on the roadway so that the traffic computer thinks the opposing traffic on a small side road is present...when in fact the entire road is blocked but STILL stops 3 blocks of #%&@# traffic for absolutely no damn reason at all.

[Cirque du So-What]

4. I've got similar complaints about traffic light programming in my area

As far as bugging the traffic poobahs at city hall goes, I think it's absolutely worthwhile.

[Blue_Tires]

6. AND all the adding of un-needed lights

Thanks to commercial/residential overdevelopment, some local roads on my commute now have eight lights in a quarter-mile stretch...

[MindPilot]

10. +10000

And get rid of those damned carpool lanes. Very few people actually have the option to use them and it's incredibly frustrating to be sitting in traffic looking at two completely empty lanes.

[JCMach1]

5. Electrics! Bring 'em on...

Even here in UAE, my next car will be an electric.

[Blue_Tires]

7. it will get worse as long as Americans continue to insist

living 20-30 miles from where they work...

[kentauros]

8. As well as continuing to insist

that telecommuting either doesn't work or won't be implemented due to some older manager that's still living in the mid-20th century with regards to the "modern" office :eyes:

My job (drafting & design) is one of the easiest to telecommute. All of the work is done on the computer, instructions could be emailed, and just give me access to the servers for the drawings. Also, instead of wasting all this paper that we do on a daily basis, we could print to PDF, have someone check and markup the PDF and email it back. I make the corrections and we're done. They can then print to their heart's content on the other end.

Oh, and the rest of them "hate" me here. My one-way commute is 7.4 miles while theirs are all at least 30 one-way. Being an urbanite is great! :D

[MindPilot]

9. Yeah every time I get laid off and have to find a new job,

I'll sell my house, buy another and move. Yeah, that'll work.

[WCGreen]

13. Exactly

[Urban Prairie]

11. Our so-call "fast-trac" traffic control system, what a fucking joke it is

It has cameras hooked up to traffic signal poles, and that monitor intersections in the two most traffic-congested counties here, and cause me to have to stop waay too frequently for red lights, even during the hours of the least traffic 9:30 am to 11:30 am. weekdays, or 10 pm to 6 am every day. Even if I maintain a speed that is slightly below the limits posted, and encounter very light traffic, I still am stopped for a red light at about an average of every other intersection, it is maddening and a tremendous waste of energy.

I have to believe that it is set up that way, to potentially increase revenue for both counties, by making it possible for the police to pull over more vehicles, and issue more traffic citations for running red lights.

When I lived in the city, before the advent of computer-controlled traffic signals, I could travel from the city limits to downtown (about 8 miles) without being stopped for a red light more than once or twice.

[WCGreen]

12. And yet we can't muster the political will to mount a massive infrastructure

initiative that would ultimately make the country more efficient and productive.

I guess the GOP wants privatized roads.