Where There's Traffic There's a Traffic Jam

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

From Capitol Hill Blue


Ain't This America. . .
Where There's Traffic There's a Traffic Jam
By DALE McFEATTERS
Sep 9, 2004, 05:35



Something deep in the American soul suggests that if a place is easy to 
get to, it's probably not worth going. Hence we come to the celebration 
of the Great American Traffic Jam.

We even have an organization that studies traffic and offers an annual 
evaluation, the Texas Transportation Institute _ an affiliate of Texas 
A&M University located, perhaps by design, in College Station, a town 
noted for the absence of traffic and much else.

Its annual list of cities with the worst traffic has just come out, and 
you can bet it was awaited eagerly by city officials everywhere.

Not surprisingly, the Los Angeles area topped the list, with the 
average commuter spending 93 hours a year in traffic. That's almost 
four whole days. You can bet Los Angeles is secretly pleased at being 
No. 1. To be big-league, you've got to have big traffic.

L.A. is comfortably ahead of No. 2, the San Francisco Bay Area, with an 
average of 73 hours a year spent stuck in traffic, but L.A. authorities 
undoubtedly keep a close eye on their in-state rival. If San Francisco 
starts creeping up the charts, look for Los Angeles to send out the 
guys with the orange cones to start closing down freeway lanes until 
the city regains it edge.

Civic pride shines through the report. The Texas authors note that 
Dallas made the biggest jump in jammed traffic, going from 13 hours 
annually in 1982 to 61 hours annually in 2002 and fourth on the list. 
The folks in Dallas aren't going to let Houston forget that its 
commuters waste only 58 hours a year, sixth on the list after No. 5 _ 
oh, the shame of it all _ Atlanta.

Third on the list is Washington, D.C., with 67 hours. Traffic lovers 
should be proud of the national capital because it starts with a 
handicap. There is long-standing disposition against high-rise 
buildings _ the city itself has a flat ban on them _ and so there isn't 
the density you would think you'd need for really bad traffic.

But Washington has that gung-ho government spirit going for it, where 
traffic-saving projects are infinitely planned and eternally postponed 
and lying about the speed of one's commute is a local folk art, like 
whistling or whittling.

Washington has something else going for it _ police roadblocks, Jersey 
barriers, blocked-off streets and traffic-stopping motorcades for even 
minor dignitaries. All of this is passed off as "security," but the 
more likely explanation is that local resident George W. Bush hates 
California so much he wants to see Los Angeles knocked off its perch.

The average for being stuck in urban traffic was 46 hours a year; so if 
you live in a big city and your average annual commute is faster than 
that, somebody in authority isn't trying.

The big cities with the fastest commutes tend to be those in the Rust 
Belt that have experienced major job losses _ Pittsburgh, Cleveland and 
Buffalo, N.Y. There's nothing like unemployment to cut commuting time. 
In that sense, traffic jams are a sign of economic vitality, another 
reason for civic pride in jammed roads.

Buffalo, which lays claim to big-league status, is last on the list of 
big cities, with only 10 hours of traffic congestion each year. Note to 
Buffalo's city managers: You're on the fast lane to gooberdom. If 
you're not wasting time, time is a-wasting; just 11 places on the list 
separate you from such bucolic outposts as Brownsville, Texas, and 
Anchorage, Alaska.

See you in traffic.




(Contact Dale McFeatters at McFeattersD () SHNS com)


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