Traffic congestion getting worse for Triangle

Posted on September 19, 2007 
Filed Under urban design

The Texas Transportation Institute’s (TTI) statisticians have confirmed what common sense and simple observation have told most of us already — that traffic congestion in the Triangle gets worse every year. What their mathematically blessed reports add to our collective understanding is that congestion in the Triangle is worse than it is in other similarly-sized metropolitan areas.

That means that, if you drive to work, you spend an extra 35 hours per year sitting in your car. And really, since “35 hours” is an average, some of you are spending much more than that. Your car might be nice, but is it that nice?

Hmm, maybe a dosage of light rail and/or commuter trains could help break up some of that congestion. Perhaps refocusing commercial and residential development through the lens of urban density would help.

If you would like to read the TTI’s full report for yourself, you can download it here (a 7MB pdf), with 12 of the 138 pages having something to say about Durham.

Meanwhile, you can download a Triangle-focused version of the report here — the 2007 Urban Mobility Information for Raleigh-Durham (downloads a pdf)

For those of you who have to spend those 35 hours behind the wheel of a car, the N&O further summarizes the report — you surely don’t have the time to read 138 pages — in a front page article digest.

By the end of the day, I’ll bet the John Locke Foundation recommends more asphalt to ease the congestion.

Comments

Leave a Reply




About

nicomachus.net is the virtual representation of Phillip Barron, who is responsible for all of the writing and photography, unless otherwise credited. Want to know more?


Jump to the full-size calendar

CM Durham


What is Critical Mass?