CALPIRG Blog

A new report released yesterday by the Texas Transportation Institute found that Los Angeles commuters continue to suffer from the worst traffic congestion in the nation. Peak hour commuters spend 72 additional hours behind the wheel because of gridlock (that's almost two full work weeks!) Here's the story in the Ventura County Star, which quotes me about the need for more and better public transportation. Here's our press release in response to the report. The full report from TTI can be accessed here. As we noted in our press release, the study pointed to the need for millions of new carpoolers and transit riders just to keep traffic from getting worse.

The report determined that just to maintain existing levels of traffic congestion: 

• Los Angeles needs 126 million new transit riders/carpoolers
• Riverside needs 75 million new transit riders/carpoolers
• San Francisco needs 34 million new transit riders/carpoolers
• Sacramento needs 48 million new transit riders/carpoolers
• San Diego needs 58 million new transit riders/carpoolers

Reading these results I'm once again baffled that Governor Schwarzenegger and legislators decided to balance the state budget on the back of public transit, cutting more than $1.2 billion in the end. All of us, whether we drive or take transit, should be asking our elected officials - what are they going to do next year to increase transit options and prevent more gridlock?