mmarshall

Guess it was just a matter of time. The affluence, high incomes, relatively low unemployment rate, high number of both new and used-car sales, massive suburban sprawl, recession-resistant local economy, and the under-developed road network in this area (D.C. Metro) have led to a general traffic mess that is (yes) even worse now that that of SoCal. SoCal still has a larger population, of course, but it also has a much better, more widespread freeway/highway system than here. Here, because of local politics, many critical road/highway projects and extensions were never completed....yet population and traffic continued to expand at huge rates, with some of the country's fastest-growing local counties. The result has been classic textbook gridlock.

In many ways, we're a victim of our own success. The strong economy here has been a boon for job-seekers for decades, attracting people in droves. But local politics has prevented road expansions, and traffic just got overwhelming.....with limited road space.

I was surprised, though, to see Chicago tied with us. Chicago is part of the Great Lakes Rust-Belt area that has been losing population and jobs for decades, and, despite a good local road-network, doesn't have this area's affluence, strong economy, and high auto-sales.

http://riverdalepark.patch.com/artic...c-congestion-2

Commuters, the “aha” moment has arrived in the form of a report released Thursday, and it’s not a glee-filled moment.
Unfortunately, your worst fears and concerns have been confirmed: The Washington metropolitan area is No. 1 in traffic delays.
The Texas Transportation Institute’s (TTI) annual study on nationwide traffic congestion paints a bleak picture for our area. The D.C. region consistently ranks on the list of congested areas in the institute’s Urban Mobility Report. In the previous two years, Washington has ranked second to Los Angeles in traffic congestion.
“There’s nothing in this report that it’s a surprise to us. They really tell us the obvious — what people experience every day, that congestion is an issue in the central Maryland region,” Maryland Department of Transportation spokesman Jack Cahalan said.
Among very large urban areas, the D.C. region ranks first — along with Chicago — in the 2010 report, which trumps Los Angeles (second) and Houston (fourth) in traffic delays. Washington area drivers literally waste 70 hours a year stuck in traffic.
Who knew it was this bad?
Baltimore, considered a large urban area designated by a population of between 1 and 3 million, ranks fifth and ahead of areas such as Denver-Aurora (ninth) and Minneapolis-St. Paul (12th). Drivers in Baltimore lose 50 hours a year on congested roads, according to the report.
Baltimore, we feel your pain.
But Cahalan noted an interesting perspective on the report’s findings that commuters may find surprising and perhaps hard to digest.
“When you see an uptick in the economy, you see an uptick in congestion and clearly our region is reflected in the trend,” he said.
“If there’s a silver lining to this study, that may be the increase in congestion from 2007, 2008, to numbers in 2009, reflect an uptick in the regions’s economy relative to the rest of the country.
Cahalan said that the area is an economically prosperous region of the country and added, “We’re ahead of the country of in job growth; we are a very prosperous state per capita income.”
Although the region continues to deal with unemployment, states like Michigan, Florida and Nevada have suffered far worse during this economic downturn.
Tim Lomax, a self-described geek and research engineer at TTI, said that the “downside of having a good economy” is an increase in traffic congestion.
The report tracks growth in congestion from 1982 to 2009. In Baltimore and the D.C. region, the number of people traveling on roadways grew 30 percent (or more) faster that the road space or supply, according to Lomax. That’s equivalent to 1 percent each year.
Believe it or not, that includes a period of a few years where growth in demand, road supply and congestion saw a dip.
Cahalan believes that two large marquee projects — in terms of investment — will help relieve the region’s congestion.
“We’re pushing the Purple Line — is certainly a priority for the state,” Cahalan said.
“The ICC is a major project for the region. [The] purpose of the ICC is to provide relief on local congested road network in Montgomery County and Prince George’s County and better mobility between for folks traveling in that east-west corridor, the I-270 corridor and I-95 D.C. to Baltimore corridor.”
Cahalan said that checking sprawl and revitalizing communities is part of using every tool in the toolbox to relieve congestion. Creating walkable communities around transit stations is a part of the vision.
“Look at how we live day-day, how we want to live,” Cahalan said.

rsantiago

MMarshall, I used to think LA Traffic was bad but when I traveled here to Southeast Asian cities like in Bangkok and where I'm currently at Metro Manila it makes traffic in LA look like a child's play. Undisciplined drivers, poor traffic enforcement, small roads, politics of course and poor condition of roads.

mmarshall

L.A. traffic IS bad. Until this latest TTI study, it was considered the worst in the U.S. And it's almost an embarassment for me to say that our D.C. area managed to allow traffic and road conditions to get even worse here. This area, though, simply refused to build new high-capacity roads for decades, and the improvements and new construction that were done were quickly outgrown by massive population/traffic growth.


Part of that is because, in SE Asia cities (and some other parts of the world), conventional cars and trucks are mixed up helter-skelter with mini-vehicles, bicycles, tri-wheel cycles, scooters, minibikes, rickshas, and all sorts of small human-powered vehicles. You not only mix apples with oranges, but with almost every other kind of fruit possible. Traffic-mixing of this sort generally does not occur in the U.S., which, of course, is one of the world's most motorized societies.

LexBob2

With Chicago it's just a case of population, about 9.6 million in the metro area (for example DC metro = 5.5 million). More people translates into more vehicles. Plus being a transportation hub in the middle of the U.S. adds a lot of trucks!

bad co

What do you mean Chicago doesnt have the afluence?

Kira X

iTrader: (24)

That's some crazy traffic. It gets pretty bad here in Dallas, but I'm sure it's nothing compared to Chicago or DC.

LexBob2

I saw that too. And no high auto sales??

SLegacy99

Really? I go to Chicago anually and I think that it is actually not bad. Philadelphia is terrible, all of the time. I-76 into Philadelphia is 2 lanes and it is backed up from 5 A.M. until 3 A.M. It's absurd.

IS-SV

Splitting hairs on largely subjective views of horrible traffic congestion is amusing at best. All of the very large and older urban areas in the US suffer from terrible traffic congestion especially around peak hours.

mmarshall

It's not necessarily a poor area compared to places like WV or AR, but it clearly doesn't have the kind of average income that the D.C. area does, especialy Fairfax County, VA and Montgomery County, MD. That, of course, translates into lower new-car sales. Chicago, though, does have a better road/freeway layout than D.C. for the traffic it does have. The highway system in the DC area has been neglected and stalled for decades, while traffic and population growth, because of the region's continually strong economy, has exploded.

mmarshall

Yes, there's some truth to that, but the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) is a well-respected institution that has done these studies for decades. They are, essentially, the Consumer Reports of traffic congestion. And a number of the older cities in the Northeast and Midwest have actually lost population (and traffic) to cities further South and West. Chicago, though, still seems to rank up there.

NYC's huge population, surprisingly, doesn't rank that high in traffic congestion, considering its size. The enormous subway system in the NY/NJ/CT area, one of the largest public-transit systems in the country, undoubtedly takes a lot of potential traffic off the area roads, though Manhattan gets quite crowded with cabs.

rogers2

I hate traffic! I change my entire work schedule to avoid traffic. My new work schedule is 6am to 2:30pm and I still hit traffic on the way home.

LexBob2

I think that you are probably off a bit regarding the new car sales point, but I guess when you are sitting in traffic, it's no fun and doesn't make much difference where it is.

LexFather

I wonder will there be a great shift in how we live. With housing prices still down in most places nationally and with gas prices rising (and notice when they drop they never drop to original levels) will the trend to live/work/play developments grow?

We have seen that nationally people are driving less. Public transit is still horrible in most cities and without increases in taxes and years of building most cities will not expand it.

Also hopefully companies continue to move to "work at home" programs to cut down on traffic and possibly increase productivity.

mmarshall

Well, it's no secret that the L.A./SoCal region is considered the center of the nation's auto culture (many new-car models are introduced there first), and traditionally leads the nation in new-car sales. But that is more of a factor of its truly enormous population base than average incomes, although some wealthy SoCal areas like parts of Orange County, Hollywood, and Beverly Hills obviously bump up the average. But SoCal is subject to more economic recessions/downturns than the virtually recession-proof D.C. area (the Federal Government never goes out of buisness), and this area almost always sells new cars, adding to the traffic load.

That's one reason why I get to review so many new cars....there are tons and tons of dealerships all over the D.C. area, for almost any car make you could want (they literally number in the hundereds), though lately Suzuki and Mitsubishi dealerships seem to be lacking some.