America's Most Congested Cities: Oh Joy. We're #1

This week Forbes Magazine ranked America's most congested cities (America's Most Congested Cities, April 10, 2008, by Matt Woolsey). Guess what? We're #1! Oy. We seem to make progress and now we learn that by Forbes' index that takes into account the longest commuting times and the longest delays, the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area is the worst. The ranking:

                             Commutes Longer    Annual Hours
City                       Than 45 Minutes    Delay Per Person

1. Washington, D.C.             28.3%           60
2. Atlanta                            24.0%            60
3. Los Angeles                     19.0%            72
4. San Francisco                  24.0%            60
5. Houston                          17.3%            56
6. New York                         43.0%            43
7. Riverside-San Bernadino  23.0%             49
8. Chicago                           25.0%            46
9. Dallas                              16.5%            58
10. Boston                           20.0%            46

Says Forbes about our area:

"The D.C. Beltway is legendary for its ability to cause residents frustration. What has made things worse over the last few years is increased suburban sprawl. This has put additional stress on roadways, because very few of the area's new housing developments link up with the Washington metropolitan train system, which services the District of Columbia and immediate suburbs very well, but doesn't link up to most of the Virginia and Maryland population centers."

True enough. Guess we have a lot of work to do still.

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a Metro/biking commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.

Comments

[Richard Layman]

The TTI studies only look at freeway congestion. For urban places like DC, and yes, Arlington, most in-city people don't experience the kind of congestion they are writing about. At least I don't experience it much, riding my bike on relatively under-traffiked streets.

When it gets really bad, on a 3 lane each way K Street NW, I joke the road becomes 5 lines with the two in-between lanes between rows of cars being perfect for bicycling.

[JP]

Thanks for highlighting this well written article Chris. They cite some heavy hitters in Transportation industry who explain why we have so much congestion and what the solutions might look like, some of which are not new ideas.

One way to look at the congestion problem is through the lens of our land use decisions. Yes, we have collectively chosen to spread-out, some call it SPRAWL.

In the past, these outer 'burb home buyers didn’t really have to think about their work and play commutes when purchasing a home since fuel was cheap, global warming was a conspiracy and even the highways were not that congested (in retrospect). Oh, how things have changed!

Those living in the outer rings, and everyone else will now be forced to re-evaluate their assumptions and expectations about where they live. Hopefully more people will take responsibility for their housing and transport choices.

In the past, each successive generation seemed to have moved to larger homes further from their place of work. Is that true for your family and friends? What will the future bring - higher oil prices, overburdened municipal budgets and mortgage meltdowns? Will it literally bring us closer together?