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Where Did Time Go? In Traffic

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By RICH SHOPES The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 19, 2007

Blog: Behind The Wheel | More Traffic News

TAMPA - Commuters in the Tampa Bay area spend the equivalent of a full week of work stuck in traffic on their way to and from their jobs each year, a new study says.

Compiled by the Texas Transportation Institute, the 2005 study found that drivers in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area wasted a combined 56 million hours sitting in rush-hour traffic.

That translates into an average of 45 hours a driver.

Of 85 large metropolitan areas, the study ranked Tampa-St. Petersburg as the nation's 20th-most congested.

The Los Angeles metro area had the worst congestion, delaying drivers an average of 72 hours a year. It was followed by Atlanta, San Francisco, Washington and Dallas. The least congested metro areas were Spokane, Wash., and Brownsville, Texas, where drivers were delayed an average of eight hours a year.

Believe it or not, Tampa-St. Petersburg's 2005 ranking was an improvement over 2004 and 2003, when drivers in the area spent 46 hours in traffic and ranked 14th and 11th, respectively, in the nationwide survey.

Don't read too much into the improvement, however, cautioned David Schrank, one of the study's authors.

'Drivers there still spend a lot of time in traffic,' Schrank said.

Wasted Time Means Wasted Money

All of that lost time behind the wheel translates into wasted money. Rising gas prices, coupled with inflation, drove up traveling costs for commuters and commercial drivers.

Those delays, on average, amounted to $809 in wasted fuel in 2005, or $20 more than 2004 and $60 more than 2003. Rising gas prices were largely to blame for the increase, with the average per-gallon cost rising from $2.34 in 2005 and from $1.53 a gallon in 2003.

Transportation officials said improvements to major roads might account for the slight drop in the hours local motorists spend stuck in traffic. And they think there might be more improvement in coming years.

'We've had a lot of construction projects out there,' Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kris Carson said.

'We widened I-275 in the Roosevelt area, from Roosevelt Boulevard to Fourth Street North,' she said. 'I think our numbers will look a lot better for 2006 because we added more cameras and message signs to give motorists more information. Plus, the downtown interchange opened in December 2006.'

Another theory is that motorists are leaving earlier for work to avoid the rush.

'I think a lot of people would say ... that things are not getting better, they're getting worse,' said Gregg Laskoski, managing director of government relations at AAA Auto Club South. 'If you were to leave your home now at the time you were leaving two or three years ago, would you be sitting in more traffic or less traffic?' he asked.

The study revealed increased congestion and traveling costs in cities across the country.

'Things are bad and they're getting worse,' said Alan Pisarski, a transportation expert and author of 'Commuting in America.'

'We've used up the capacity that had been bequeathed to us by a previous generation, and we haven't replaced it,' Pisarski said.

The study summed it up this way: 'Too many people, too many trips over too short of a time period on a system that is too small.'

Gas Cuts Optional Driving, Not Commutes

The study estimates that drivers wasted 2.9 billion gallons of fuel while sitting in traffic. Together with the lost time, traffic delays cost the nation $78.2 billion, the study estimates.

High gasoline prices appear to have cut into optional driving but not commuting to work, said Schrank, an associate research scientist at the Texas Transportation Institute, which is part of Texas A&M University.

'We're really not seeing drops in the peak travel times,' Schrank said.

About three-quarters of all commuters drive alone to work, according to census data.

The study offers a menu of options for addressing congestion, including adding roads or lanes where needed, improving public transportation and changing driving patterns through flexible work schedules, telecommuting and carpooling.

Atlanta has seen some improvement, according to the study. In 2005, Atlanta drivers wasted an average of 60 hours a year in traffic delays - down from 70 hours a decade earlier.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633 or at rshopes@tampatrib.com.

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