BIKE: TTI 2005 Urban Mobility Report

[Patrick Goetz]

Austin gets an explict mention in the news article in a quote given by 
one of the reports co-authors.  This brings up a rather important point 
which perhaps someone could provide clarification on.  The SOS Alliance 
frequently cites a statistic that Austin was #2 in road building per 
capita over the last 2 decades (i.e. not only is the mobility problem 
not due to inadequate road construction, but road building is not going 
to solve congestion problems).  I've looked for verification of this on 
the web, and have been unable to find any.  The quote below appears to 
directly contradict this assertion.  Note that I strongly agree with the 
SOSA that road building creates rather than solves congestion problems, 
but think it's important to make sure that you have your facts straight 
for purposes of credibility.

    ---- excerpted from the following ----
    Take fast-growing Austin, Texas, for example. In 1982, the average
    peak-hour traveler was delayed by 11 hours a year. That delay 
increased to
    51 hours in 2003, the report said.

    "Austin didn't add transportation capacity in the '80s or '90s," Lomax
    said. "The 'If you don't build it, they won't come' philosophy didn't
    work."

====================================

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050509/ap_on_re_us/traffic_jams

Study Shows Traffic Keeps Getting Worse

By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 2 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - If getting stuck in traffic makes you want to roll down your
car window and scream, look no further than another of those studies to
find the bad news: Gridlock is getting worse. Congestion delayed travelers
79 million more hours and wasted 69 million more gallons of fuel in 2003
than in 2002, the Texas Transportation Institute's 2005 Urban Mobility
Report found.

Overall in 2003, there were 3.7 billion hours of travel delay and 2.3
billion gallons of wasted fuel for a total cost of more than $63 billion.

"Urban areas are not adding enough capacity, improving operations or
managing demand well enough to keep congestion from growing," the report
concluded.

Honolulu became the 51st city in which rush-hour traffic delayed the
average motorist at least 20 hours a year. The Hawaiian capital joins such
congested areas as Washington, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago \u2014 and
Virginia Beach, Va., Omaha, Neb., and Colorado Springs, Colo.

The report was released Monday, the same day the Senate resumes debate on
a bill that would spend $284 billion on highways over the next six years.

But that's not enough money to solve traffic problems, according to
highway and transit advocates.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
estimated it would take as much as $400 billion in federal spending over
the next six years to solve traffic problems, based on a 2002 study.

Roads aren't being built fast enough to carry all the people who now drive
on them, according to the Transportation Development Foundation, a group
that advocates transportation construction.

The number of vehicle miles traveled has increased 74 percent since 1982,
but road lane mileage only increased 6 percent, the foundation said.

Tim Lomax, a co-author of the Urban Mobility Report, said the soft economy
and slow job growth in 2003 meant that congestion got worse more slowly
than it would have during better times.

"The upside of a slowdown in the economy is the congestion didn't get
worse very quickly," Lomax said.

In seven of the 13 major cities, the annual delay per rush-hour traveler
actually went down slightly: Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami,
New York, Houston and Philadelphia.

Lomax said that didn't mean congestion improved throughout each area. It
probably just spread out to the suburbs.

"In most of those places, delay actually went up, it just didn't go up as
fast as the number of people moving in went up," Lomax said.

Only job loss or major commitments to expand capacity will decrease
congestion dramatically, he said.

Refusing to build more roads and transit systems won't discourage
population growth, Lomax said.

Take fast-growing Austin, Texas, for example. In 1982, the average
peak-hour traveler was delayed by 11 hours a year. That delay increased to
51 hours in 2003, the report said.

"Austin didn't add transportation capacity in the '80s or '90s," Lomax
said. "The 'If you don't build it, they won't come' philosophy didn't
work."

Congestion can also be reduced by managing traffic better. The report said
such techniques as coordinating traffic signals, smoothing traffic flow on
major roads and creating teams to respond quickly to accidents reduced
delay by 336 million hours in 2003.

Robert Dunphy, senior resident fellow for transportation at the Urban Land
Institute, said that half of all traffic delays are caused by car crashes.

"There are huge benefits to getting in there and clearing accidents
quickly," Dunphy said.

Commuters also adapt, said Alan Pisarski, author of "Commuting in America"
and a transportation consultant.

"People give up and go somewhere else," he said. "Or else they're leaving
home at 6 a.m. or 9 a.m."