Seriously? We know that it is obvious we help relieve traffic congestion. But now here is an official report to back it up..and there's a chart, too!

Report Says Without Public Transit, Travelers Would Have Suffered an Additional 785 Million Hours of Delay on our Nation’s Roads

The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) today released its highly regarded congestion report, 2010 Urban Mobility Report, which looked at road congestion in 439 United States urban areas. As in past years, the data overwhelmingly shows the importance of public transportation in relieving congestion. In fact, the report’s improved methodology indicates that public transportation has an even greater role in reducing congestion than previously thought.

The 2010 Urban Mobility Report makes clear that without public transportation services, travelers would have suffered an additional 785 million hours of delay and consumed 640 million more gallons of fuel. Had there been no public transportation service available in the 439 urban areas studied, congestion costs for 2009 would have risen by nearly $19 billion from $115 to $134 billion. (See the table below for the top 36 urban areas.)

"There is no doubt that expanding public transportation use is key to reducing traffic congestion," said American Public Transportation Association (APTA) President William Millar. "Clearly, even if you don’t ride public transportation, it is still in your best interest to support investment in public transit. Better public transportation in your community means less congestion on the roads."

Pointing out that the surface transportation authorization legislation has not yet been enacted by Congress, Millar said, "Reducing traffic congestion is one of many reasons why the 112th Congress needs to move on passing a well-funded, multi-year, surface transportation authorization bill. Each passing day means a delay in addressing congestion problems which impact individuals and undermine business productivity."

In addition to its proven record of reducing congestion, public transportation offers economic benefits. Public transportation plays an important role in helping people commute to work; nearly 60 percent of all trips on public transportation involve travel to and from job sites. Also, every $1 billion invested in public transportation creates and supports 36,000 jobs.

U.S. public transportation use also produces significant energy-savings benefits. Each year 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline are saved because our citizens use public transportation.

"This report offers compelling evidence of the importance of investing in public transportation," said Millar. "Now is the time for Congress to pass a long-term authorization bill that will help reduce the problem of urban road congestion through a greater investment in public transportation."

The urban areas listed below had the highest savings in hours of delay due to public transportation use in 2009. Also, included in the following table are congestion cost savings from public transportation use (the total for both the cost of hours of delay saved and gallons of fuel saved). 

Hours of Delay Rank	Urban Area	Savings from Public Transportation Use
		Hours of Delay Saved	Gallons of Fuel Saved	Congestion Cost Savings
1	New York-Newark NY-NJ-CT	368,062,189	267,205,900	8,810,307,584
2	Chicago IL-IN	92,506,568	82,323,700	2,351,660,815
3	Washington DC-VA-MD	34,119,772	24,150,500	766,572,738
4	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana CA	33,187,437	13,766,600	773,174,258
5	Boston MA-NH-RI	32,885,168	23,597,800	745,480,195
6	San Francisco-Oakland CA	28,659,672	21,895,500	660,427,073
7	Philadelphia PA-NJ-DE-MD	26,377,522	18,954,700	633,001,381
8	Seattle WA	14,152,702	9,886,300	346,505,237
9	Baltimore MD	13,226,896	11,104,600	323,183,010
10	Miami FL	9,356,439	5,550,200	217,166,239
11	Atlanta GA	8,314,827	5,850,500	201,978,800
12	Houston TX	6,662,608	3,291,800	157,120,594
13	San Diego CA	6,286,157	5,083,600	147,963,306
14	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington TX	5,989,276	4,803,800	136,888,951
15	Denver-Aurora CO	5,931,164	4,604,600	134,956,494
16	San Juan PR	5,716,642	3,689,100	137,359,320
17	Portland OR-WA	5,422,218	4,129,500	128,088,528
18	Minneapolis-St. Paul MN	5,058,607	3,974,600	115,350,086
19	Pittsburgh PA	4,890,217	4,031,700	118,813,888
20	Salt Lake City UT	3,325,441	2,677,500	73,450,684
21	St. Louis MO-IL	2,908,957	2,696,500	73,831,596
22	Phoenix AZ	2,474,469	2,123,800	66,517,309
23	Cleveland OH	2,144,675	1,721,500	47,977,648
24	Detroit MI	1,946,798	1,304,600	44,955,358
25	Austin TX	1,892,698	1,437,400	43,203,738
26	San Jose CA	1,872,224	1,499,200	41,459,814
27	New Orleans LA	1,815,482	1,375,500	46,695,436
28	Milwaukee WI	1,670,005	1,336,500	39,476,376
29	Las Vegas NV	1,446,575	1,171,200	32,367,935
30	Orlando FL	1,432,316	990,000	35,163,216
31	San Antonio TX	1,331,216	1,210,900	30,018,975
32	Sacramento CA	1,314,085	903,700	30,980,875
33	Virginia Beach VA	1,191,165	844,700	25,411,474
34	Cincinnati OH-KY-IN	1,152,262	890,200	28,279,860
35	Riverside-San Bernardino CA	1,088,144	455,400	27,225,618
36	Tampa-St. Petersburg FL	1,041,343	676,800	23,835,882

 

 

 

 

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