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
Stressed-out commuters with little time for loved ones also don't have much time for community involvement, it turns out. Robert Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard University, has conducted extensive studies of the reasons behind Americans' decreasing involvement in social groups like the PTA, church, recreational clubs, and political parties. Putnam's conclusion? Long commutes are a bigger reason than almost any demographic factor. The relationship can be plotted on a curve, Putnam says: For every 10 minutes spent driving to work, involvement in community affairs drops by 10 percent.
Death toll. Traffic is also taking a major toll on public health. During the 1996 Olympics, Atlanta officials took dramatic steps to limit car traffic in the city. The measures worked so well the number of cars in the morning rush hour dropped by 22.5 percent. But there was another benefit: The number of children suffering asthma attacks, a leading cause of childhood illness, dropped dramatically. Accidents, obviously, create other health problems. Despite air bags and other safety features, some 42,000 people are killed in auto crashes each year, and 3 million are injured. Many accidents, obviously, have little or nothing to do with congestion. But with one car for nearly every two Americans, each one driven an average of 12,000 miles a year, the chances for dangerous mishaps are certainly greater than if there were fewer cars on the roads. Suburbanites, with their heavy dependence on the automobile, have a particularly high risk of dying or being seriously injured in their cars. Washington, D.C., once dubbed the murder capital of America, turns out to be a far less dangerous place to live than several of its sprawling, distant suburbs. That's because of the lower risk Washington residents have of being killed while driving.
These days it's hard to escape the dangers and frustrations of traffic even in remote areas. On a recent Saturday morning, Rod Moraga of Boulder, Colo., found himself 11,000 feet high and stuck behind a long line of cars just a few hundred yards from the top of the Continental Divide. "You don't expect traffic here," Moraga says. "So, it takes away from the experience. You're stressed out, uptight, and it takes longer to enjoy yourself. It's like New York."
Not surprisingly, many who can afford it are avoiding nightmarish commutes by moving closer to downtown. According to the latest census figures, the nation's largest cities grew nearly twice as fast in the 1990s as in the 1980s, with 3 out of every 4 urban centers gaining population. A recent study by Fannie Mae found that 18 of 24 major downtown areas saw the number of new residents increase. Suburbs, conversely, are becoming less attractive. William Lucy and David Phillips of the University of Virginia studied 405 economically distressed suburbs around the country. Economic decline usually occurs, they concluded, "where the houses are located in inconvenient settings, where there are few public amenities, and where there often are no alternatives to automobile transportation."
Urban real estate may be expensive, but so is the cost of maintaining two or more automobiles and driving them constantly. Residents of New York City, for example, pay an average $2,500 per year less on transportation than do residents of sprawling Houston, even after accounting for the extra taxes New Yorkers pay to support mass transit. Because of such savings, Fannie Mae now offers special mortgages with lower earnings requirements for home buyers who purchase property served by good mass transit.
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