SB, I think we should move to Montana, but I don't think I could handle the winter.
>May 8, 2001
San Diego County has the fifth-worst rush-period commute in the nation, and drivers here spend nearly a full workweek stuck in freeway gridlock every year, a new study said yesterday.
The only commuters faring worse were those in Los Angeles -- which again ranked in first place -- the Bay Area, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
"Obviously, Californians are sitting in some of the worst traffic in the nation to have three of our cities in the top five of our most-congested list," said Gloria Ohland, spokeswoman for the Surface Transportation Policy Project, a coalition that advocates mass transit.
An annual study by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University ranked 68 urban areas, as defined by the U.S. Census, in 10 categories. Among the findings, based on 1999 data, the most recent available:
Americans spend three times as much time in traffic as they did 20 years ago.
San Diego's commute is considered to be among the worst because it takes drivers 40 percent longer during peak periods to get to their destinations compared with other times of the day. This is the first time San Diego ranked in the top 10 in this category.
The Los Angeles rush-period commute was 55 percent longer than at non-peak times, followed by the Bay Area at 45 percent, Seattle at 44 percent, and the nation's capital at 42 percent. San Diego tied for fifth place with Chicago.
In a separate category, San Diego drivers spent 37 hours in congestion, about one hour more than the national average, ranking 19th in the study. In 1982, commuters here spent eight hours a year in heavy traffic.
The study showed that Los Angeles drivers spent an average of 56 hours stuck in traffic in 1999.
San Diegans each lost an average of about $675 in wasted time and wasted fuel, ranking 18th among the 68 cities in the study, for a total of $1.8 billion lost here annually. Nationally, commuters wasted $78 billion by spending 4.5 billion hours of extra travel time and 6.8 billion gallons of fuel while sitting in traffic.
The study indicated that San Diego kept pace with traffic growth between 1994 and 1998 by adding roadways that kept annual delays from increasing by more than four hours. However, between 1987 and 1992, the average annual delay increased by 10 hours.
"It is troubling, especially to native San Diegans who know what it was like back in the mid-'80s compared to now," said Tom Nipper, spokesman for Caltrans, which provided statistics for the study and supports its findings.
Researchers used complicated mathematical formulas and statistics from state transportation departments to rank cities. San Diego ranked in the top 20 in all 10 categories, which ranged from rush-period congestion to delays.
The study found that congestion has increased in almost every part of the country, not just large cities, and "rush hour" is a thing of the past. The new term is "rush period," and it has grown to three hours, twice a day.
Commuters are paying a high price.
"When you think about what I could do with those $675 that I waste, that could be a nice weekend getaway or a lot more Christmas presents for the kids," said David Schrank, one of the study's authors. "And those 37 hours, I sure would like to have for additional sleep time to divide over the year or more time with the kids."
The trends, which follow a plateau when the recession of the early '90s kept congestion levels relatively stable because of higher unemployment, don't surprise researchers or San Diego transportation officials.
"We all know there is congestion in San Diego County and we all know that nobody likes it," said Nipper of Caltrans. "The question is, what are we going to do? We're going to do a lot of the things the study said."
The report suggests a combination of solutions, from building walkable communities close to transit, shops, schools and work centers, to car-pooling, staggered work hours, additional road construction and transit expansion.
A separate study released yesterday by the Surface Transportation Policy Project analyzed data from the Texas study and found that San Diego also ranks poorly in the amount of mass transit available to ease the commute burden.
In the Bay Area -- which ranks as the second-most congested area in the country -- 25 percent of all commuters use public transit.
In San Diego, only 14 percent of the work force avoids driving. Almost 5 percent work from home, 4 percent walk, and 4.4 percent take public transit to work.
Researchers for the Surface Transportation Policy Project said San Diego doesn't offer enough mass transit options.
"San Diego is in much the same situation as Los Angeles," said Ohland. "People don't have any alternatives. They have to sit in traffic. You have to feel the pain in San Diego."
San Diego City Council members were in session and could not be reached for comment about the traffic studies. |
