The Reason Foundation, a non-profit libertarian think tank out of Los Angeles and "dedicated to advancing free markets and free ideas" just released a study (16th Report on the Performance of State Highway Systems (1984-2005), Press Release; June 28, 2007) saying that road conditions are improving but traffic congestion and highway fatalities are rising.
The congestion numbers are interesting but not surprising. The report says that 2005 statistics show that 51.85% of the nation's urban interstates are congested, up slightly from 2004's 51.60%. For the traffic engineers out there this means that 8,051 miles out of 15,528 were rated as having volume/capacity ratios greater than 0.70 - the standard for mild congestion. The State Congestion Rankings:
Rank/State % Congested
1. Montana 0.00
1. North Dakota 0.00
1. South Dakota 0.00
1. Wyoming 0.00
5. Maine 2.94
6. W. Virginia 3.80
7. Vermont 5.00
8. Alaska 8.70
9. New Mexico 16.77
10. Kansas 24.77
21. Virginia 42.54
46. Maryland 68.58
47. N. Carolina 72.47
48. New Jersey 73.35
49. Minnesota 77.80
50. California 83.33
It would have been nice to have seen the data for urban regions as well as for states but other folks put that information out on a regular basis. This just adds to the data pile. A PDF of the entire 50 page report is here. You can also find an interactive map and Excel tables here to do your own sorting.
Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria
I moved from Orange County, CA to Albuquerque, New Mexico and I hoped living in a less metropolitan area would mean less traffic hassle, but the five o'clock rush here is killer. Especially if you commute between Santa Fe and Albuquerque!
I was surprised to see New Mexico pop up on the congestion statistics, but then I thought about it and was more intrigued than anything else.
Posted by: Richard | July 05, 2007 at 08:55 PM