American Gridlock
Traffic is making millions sick and tired. The bad news? It's going to get worse unless things change in a real big way
On good days, it took Jen Wells 20 minutes to get to work, but the good days were rare. Usually, in fact, it took the 26-year-old art director up to an hour to get to her office in downtown Atlanta. Finally, she had had enough. So, like millions of Americans, Wells traded in the stress, tolls, and gas bills for a place in town and gave up the lousy commute. "It's the hassle factor," she says.
Traffic, everyone knows, is one of the bigger hassles of modern life. But just in time for Memorial Day, a blizzard of brand-new data confirms just how bad congestion has become. Since 1982, while the U.S. population has grown nearly 20 percent, the time Americans spend in traffic has jumped an amazing 236 percent. In major American cities, the length of the combined morning-evening rush hour has doubled, from under three hours in 1982 to almost six hours today. The result? The average driver now spends the equivalent of nearly a full workweek each year stuck in traffic.
That's not just lost time--it's real money. Congestion costs Americans $78 billion a year in wasted fuel and lost time--up 39 percent since 1990. In Houston, traffic jams cost commuters on the Southwest Freeway and West Loop 610 an average $954 a year in wasted fuel and time. In New Jersey's Somerset County, congestion costs the average licensed driver $2,110 a year. Truckers--and the businesses that depend on them--say clogged roads are choking off economic growth and reducing the nation's competitiveness. Commercial truck travel increased by 37 percent during the 1990s. By 2020, it's expected to double in most parts of the country.
What's really striking, though, is how traffic is changing American life. New census data show that the rush to suburbia, which transformed the face of the nation over the past half century, began to slow in the past decade as many Americans decided the long commute just wasn't worth it. There are other factors, of course, including the drop in urban crime and the draw of restored historic districts. But if there is any doubt that traffic woes also were a big factor, consider this: After a half century of decline, ridership on
mass transit is up dramatically. Survey data show more people are forsaking their cars for subway, train, and light-rail alternatives. "Many people, when they moved to the suburbs, had a vision," says Barbara McCann of the Surface Transportation Policy Project, a public-interest group in Washington, D.C. "They loved the quick and easy ride to work. But now, instead, there's congestion."
Traffic influences not just where Americans live, but how they live. Studies repeatedly show that people making long commutes are at a higher risk for a host of maladies. High blood pressure, sleep deprivation, and depression top the list. Meni Koslowsky, a psychologist from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and author of the book Commuting Stress, notes that Type A personalities, competitive and anxious about wasting time, are particularly prone to being unnerved by traffic. Koslowsky has also found that women who face long commutes are more stressed and depressed by the experience than men and show greater unhappiness with their home lives.
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