Traffic congestion worsens as transit ridership falls

Traffic congestion cost American drivers more than $295 billion in 2016, a new study finds, as a recovering economy and sustained low gas prices put more drivers on the roads.

At the same time, federal transportation data shows the number of Americans using mass transit systems is falling in most of the nation’s major cities, contributing to jammed roadways as motorists decide to drive themselves.

Los Angeles residents spend more time stuck in traffic, an average of 104 hours per year during peak travel hours, than those in any other city in the world. Drivers in New York and San Francisco spend more than 80 hours in gridlock, according to the study by INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard. Drivers in six other cities — Atlanta, Miami, Washington, Dallas, Boston, Chicago and Seattle — spent more than 50 hours per year on congested roadways.

{mosads}“In the U.S., pretty much, congestion is up among the metro areas,” said INRIX senior economist Bob Pishue. He pointed to a rebounding economy, in which more people are working — and therefore commuting to work.

All that traffic costs the economy, and individual drivers, billions of dollars a year in lost productivity, gasoline and wear and tear. INRIX estimated traffic congestion costs the average American driver $1,399 per year. In Los Angeles, the average driver shoulders $2,408 in costs related to congestion.

Even with all that congestion, data from the Federal Transit Administration shows that show fewer Americans are using public transportation, meant to get more cars off the road.

The federal data show ridership of public transportation systems increased in just six of the nation’s 30 largest metropolitan areas between 2015 and 2016. 

Ridership grew fastest in Seattle, where a new light rail system has begun operating; ridership on the city’s total transit system rose 4.1 percent over the course of the last year. More people took public transit in Houston, Milwaukee, Detroit, the New York area and the San Francisco Bay area than in 2015, too.

Most major cities experienced serious ridership decline. Rides on Washington’s Metro system declined from 441 million to 396 million between 2015 and 2016, a 10 percent drop. 

Public transit systems in some of the country’s fastest-growing cities, including Dallas, Atlanta, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Jose and Miami, all posted declines of at least 5 percent year-over-year.

Five of the ten most congested cities in the world, including three of the top four, are in the United States: Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Atlanta and Miami. Moscow; Bogota, Colombia; Sao Paulo, Brazil; London and Paris also rank among the most congested cities in the world.

Four of the eight most congested roadways in the nation are in the New York metropolitan area. In Chicago and Boston, business and freight traffic moves at an average of just 4.9 miles per hour during weekdays.