Article last updated:
Monday, May 21, 2001 2:45 AM MST
Traffic jams an economic threat
By Chris Tribbey
STAFF WRITER
The energy crisis isn't California's only serious economic problem,
says one study.
Shortly after a traffic study last month showed that the San
Francisco-Oakland area had the second-worst traffic situation in the
country, another study by two non-profit groups claimed that long-term
congestion in the Bay Area and the state could be a bigger problem
than the energy crisis.
'A roads crisis'
"The Bay Area faces a two-fold threat: power blackouts and traffic
gridlock," said Jim Earp, executive director of the California
Alliance for Jobs, which co-authored the study.
"Energy shortages have caught the attention of California, but we also
face a growing and potentially longer-lasting roads crisis," Earp
said.
The study, called Traffic Congestion: California's Economic Roadblock,
uses figures showing three-quarters of all goods shipped from
California are transported on trucks. Caltrans' figures show that
twice as many freight trucks will be on California's highways in 2020.
"Travel in California in the last decade increased 10 times faster
(than additional lanes)," said Larry Fisher, executive director of
Transportation California, a non-profit transportation group that
co-authored the study.
Wasted time in traffic
The major problem, the study claims, is the amount of time and money
people in the Bay Area, and in the state, waste sitting in traffic
jams. According to the study, the average cost in lost time and gas
due to gridlock is $760 per person in the Bay Area. Statewide, more
than $20.7 billion is lost every year, the study claims, more than $3
billion due to Bay Area congestion.
"California has not done enough to expand or enhance its
transportation systems, and the cost of traffic congestion threatens
our economy," Fisher said.
Headaches
Then there are the headaches, which can never be properly tallied.
The study claims that a trip on the highway taken during rush hour in
the Bay Area takes twice as long as the same trip during non-commute
hours. Because of congestion, a Bay Area driver wastes about 42 hours
a year sitting in the car.
The study makes some more or less obvious suggestions on how the
country's most populated state can address congestion problems:
Additional traffic and turn lanes must be added to many highways,
especially those that now handle more traffic than they were designed
to hold.
More arterial options, such as "urban highway links," which would link
major highways to areas that have grown in the past decade.
More mass transit service. If the highways can't handle the load, give
the commuters viable alternatives.
Increase highway traffic speeds. The study claims that if traffic
speeds were increased 12 to 15 percent, traffic flow would improve
tremendously, without turning freeways into autobahns.
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