New report documents increasing roadway congestion
The Federal Highway Administration has just released its 2006 Conditions and Performance Report with bad news about increased congestion. In urban areas, more than 30% of traffic now occurs on congested highways. This ranges from 16.6% in rural areas to 40.7% in large urban centers -- and it's getting worse. In the past decade, congestion in these larger centers has increased from 34.4% -- a 20% increase in ten years. Looked at another way, in these larger centers, "rush hour" was 5.9 hours a day in 1995 and is now 6.6 hours. (see Chapter 4)
Predictable (recurring) congestion imposes huge costs, but worse is "non-recurring congestion" as occurs, say, during winter storms. Half of all congestion is "non-recurring" and here we have operations strategies that can significantly reduce travel time waste and improve roadway safety -- as in providing effective winter maintenance and timely application of salt to roadways to prevent snow and ice from bonding to the pavement. (See chapter 15)
