mmarshall

We have often talked about our cities and how bad traffic is....how we get in our car and stand still. Many of us believe, rightly or wrongly, that our own city is the worst.....much chat and debate has taken place over this.
Well, here are some numbers from one of the most well-known and well-respected companies in the buisness of measuring this....the Texas Transportation Institute. The 2005 report...part of which I have posted....has the average amount of time calculated for each driver sitting still in traffic and the number of hours wasted each year. Figures current are good through the end of 2003...apparantly they are still analyzing 2004.

First place...no surprise.....L.A. by a large margin. Then San Francisco. Then the D.C-Baltimore area (my home).Then Atlanta. Then....well...see for yourself:
http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/congest...al/table_4.pdf

LexFather

Dude, this is a GREAT find. My girlfiiend and I were stuck in traffic today, no matter where we went. Not only that, the lack of people following laws, little ones like using signals to big ones like running a light like 5 seconds after the light is red. It just makes things very crazy.

This is sad and it will just get worse and worse.

XeroK00L

It's interesting to note that many areas saw a decline in traffic congestion from year 2002 to 2003, most probably because of the great recession after the dot bomb and 911. I was actually quite happy for a while to see the lessened traffic at the time.

NeverSatisfied

Wow, didn't expect to see Phoenix up there; I thought the traffic was pretty good when I went to school there.

Initial B

iTrader: (2)

You must mean N. Mexico. Yeah, it's suckin' here. A combination of border crossers and every SOB from the midwest moving here.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

As you know I can certainly relate to that! I just couldn't stand it anymore even though I lived close to where I work. Now I drive about every other day on empty roads. I can still hardly believe it.

Lexiss_sc430

iTrader: (2)

haha these guys, I have been stuck in traffic for 3 1/2 hours to go 40 miles, and that’s just off the top of my head., if I sat here and tried to think of all the others times we’d be here for a while. LA sucks that’s what it comes down to, plain and simple. Traffic is a usual thing, its no longer a maybe its a certainty, there is not way you go some where in la and not hit traffic, unless its in the middle of the night, then only times you can find the road ways clear is when ur coming back from clubs otherwise

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

I'd still like to see a study using minute per mile. I know here in Hawaii the average round trip is probably only about 25-30 miles for most people, but it will still take them about 1 hour each each way. Mine is about 42 miles round trip, and fortunately I don't have to work in the morning. People here leave work at 4:30-5AM to reach work at 7AM. Often at least 1-2 times a week traffic will be at a pace of about 4 miles per 30 minutes. If there is a fairly large accident many people just stay at work or eat dinner near work since it will take you 3 hours to get home 20 miles away. There are little alternative routes, so if one route is shut down with an accident it is pretty much over. I think traffic lights plays a big role as well, plus my state does these stupid things like shutting down freeway on ramps to speed up traffic in the morning for the freeway, but that leaves entrire areas where drivers need to find an alternative route to the freeway bottlenecking the next on ramp. It makes no sense. Plus, those trying to get out of town generally going the opposite way of major morning traffic gets stuck in much heavier traffic as well. I guess they don't care about the guys getting off work and trying to leave the area.

WhiteTiger

Well I am glad that here is one area that I am definitely below average. Ft Lauderdale isn't even on the list and the nice thing is, that if you know your way around the tri-county area, even in rush hour it isn't too bad.

I consider myself very blessed to have a 7 miles commute to work that on a bad day (catching every light and maybe a traffic accident or two) takes me 25 minutes and I have done it in 9 minutes. Average is about 12-15.

Yet I am no stranger to traffic as I have driven in almost ever major metropolitan area in this country including LA and Atlanta. Grew up in Chicago. Unfortunately traffic patterns are only going to get worse.

jtanoyo1

LOL, y'all need to come out to Jakarta just so you will know how blessed you guys' are....

I read some info a while back that we are the MOST congested city in the world after Bangkok. Check this pic out from last month, not only do we have bumper-to-bumper traffic, we also got mini flash floods to boot.

Now you wonder why I never drive the Aristo ANYWHERE....

Goldark

I was thinking about this today while I was sitting in our lovely Chicago traffic.
For some reason I thought that a 'stacked' expressway would be great.

Anyone else agree?

The expressway to and from the city being multi-level to handle the rush hour traffic?

flipspeed

metro manila is pretty bad too. 2 lane roads are turned into 4 somehow and people literally bump each other's cars like it's nothing. add to that floods and air pollution.

flipside909

That wasn't a great idea here in CA built in the 60s but damaged in the 80s. Remember Loma Prieta Earthquake on October 17,1989 and the Bay Bridge World Series A's vs Giants? I remember experiencing it...almost seems like yesterday:

Before:



After:

Goldark

Chicago doesn't have earthquakes

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

No but you have blizzards so who would want to drive on the top level of the stacked highway?