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Californians Stuck Behind the Wheel
The Texas Transportation Institute releases their Urban Mobility Report every year or so - the last one was in the fall of 2007. Here are a few of the new numbers for California cities: Los Angeles/Orange County: Los Angeles and Orange County once again ranked number one in the country for worst traffic congestion. Area residents spent more than 485 million hours stuck behind the wheel because of traffic, wasting 367 million gallons of fuel and costing the region more than $10 billion in lost time and productivity. However, local public transit service prevented an additional 30 million hours of delays by offering alternative ways for commuters to travel without their cars – a savings worth $578 million to the region. San Francisco/Oakland: Bay Area
residents wasted 129 million hours stuck behind the wheel because of
traffic, wasting 94 million gallons of fuel, and costing the region
more than 2.6 billion in lost time and productivity. However, local
public transit service prevented an additional 26 million hours of
delays by offering alternative
ways for commuters to travel without their cars – a savings worth
$487 million to the region. Inland Empire: Riverside area residents wasted 48 million hours stuck behind the wheel because of traffic, wasting 38 million gallons of fuel, and costing the region more than 1 billion in lost time and productivity. However, local public transit service prevented an additional 2.1 million hours of delays by offering alternative ways for commuters to travel without their cars – a savings worth $40 million to the region. Other recent studies seem to suggest that the benefits of public transportation are even greater than these numbers imply. According to a separate Brookings Institution study, 2007 was the first year that per-capita driving miles declined. And earlier this year the INRIX February report found that a 3.7% drop in vehicle miles traveled in 2008 resulted in a 30% drop in congestion in top 100 metro areas--and average of 13 less hours stuck in traffic per commuter. Together, these studies show that a small reduction in vehicle miles traveled can mean big reductions in traffic congestion – especially when the auto trips are removed at the kind of choke points that public transportation best reduces. Voters get it. Californians approved the statewide ballot measures to build high-speed rail, as well as local public transit improvements like the SMART train in Sonoma-Marin, transit operations funding in the East Bay, and expanded transit in Los Angeles County, to name a few. Now we need politicians to get on board. The California Transit Association got so sick and tired of the California state legislature illegally raiding transit operations funding to balance the budget that they sued the state. I worked with other organizations to file an amicus brief in support of CTA's position, and the lawsuit recently won in the 3rd District Court of Appeals. We need the legislature to stop cutting public transportation and find stable, ongoing funds to keep California moving. We also need California's powerful Congressional delegation to stand up to the road lobby and call for public transportation in the next federal funding bill. We're working to build support for the National Transportation Objectives Act, a bill that lays out the principles that we should follow to overhaul our transportation funding system.
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