An urban congestion study found that the time penalty for making "rush-hours" trips is greater, rush hours are longer, and the percentage of streets and freeways that are congested is higher.

The annual 2002 Urban Mobility report from the Texas Transportation Institute found that traffic delays in the nation's largest urban areas increased by 41 percent since 1990. As a result, the average urban rush hour driver now spends an average of 62 additional hours annually -- the equivalent of one and a half working weeks -- stuck in traffic because of traffic congestion, up from 44 hours in 1990.
The study found the nation's worst-congested 10 urban areas, in order of rank, are: Los Angeles; San Francisco-Oakland; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Boston; Miami-Hialeah; Seattle-Everett; Denver; San Jose; and New York-Northeastern N.J.
TTI officials say there are solutions -- more roadways and transit, ramp metering, HOV lanes, incentives to make trips at different times and better incident management (clearing accident scenes more quickly, etc.) -- that can make a positive difference in addressing the problem. The bad news, researchers Tim Lomax and David Schrank say, is that even if transportation officials do all the right things, the likely effect is that congestion will continue to grow, even if more slowly, because not enough is being done.
Even the best efficiency-boosting ideas can't entirely take the place of new roads. The researchers point out that although roadway expansion isn't a "wonder drug" to cure traffic jams, it does make a difference. "The few cities that have added travel demand and roadway supply at roughly the same rate have seen slower congestion growth," Lomax says. "Even so, it is very difficult to sustain the funding, environmental approval and public confidence to pursue that as the only strategy."
The study found the time penalty for peak period travelers has jumped from 16 hours per year in 1982 to 62 hours in 2000. The period of time when travelers might experience congestion has increased from 4.5 hours in 1982 to 7 hours in 2000. And the amount of roadways that are congested has grown from 34 percent in 1982 to 58 percent in 2000.
The Urban Mobility Report is produced by TTI and funded by a consortium of 10 state transportation agency sponsors. TTI, a member of the Texas A&M University System, is the largest university-affiliated transportation research agency in the nation.