Traffic costs local drivers 38 hours per year

Philadelphia-area drivers waste nearly a full work week each year sitting in traffic, according to a national study released yesterday. The good news: Congestion is worse in most other large American cities.

The annual Urban Mobility Report from the Texas Transportation Institute found the Philadelphia area ranked 33d among 85 cities in annual delays per traveler, at 38 hours spent stuck in traffic. That was an hour more than a year earlier.

However, Philadelphia fared much worse than most cities in one telling congestion statistic: the impact of accidents and stalled vehicles on traffic congestion. Among the largest metro areas, only New York City was worse.

Yesterday morning, for example, a tractor-trailer hauling 9,000 gallons of gasoline ran off busy Route 70 in Medford, hit a utility pole, and flipped onto its side, spilling thousands of gallons of fuel and snarling South Jersey traffic all day. Route 70 may not reopen until this afternoon's rush, authorities said.

The report evaluated how much congestion costs travelers in time and money, based on 2005 data compiled by the Federal Highway Administration.

Nationwide, drivers languished in traffic delays for a total of 4.2 billion hours in 2005, up from 4 billion the year before. In the Philadelphia region, 112 million hours were lost to traffic delays and 71 million gallons of excess fuel were consumed, the report said.

The study estimated that drivers wasted 2.9 billion gallons of fuel while sitting in traffic. Together with the lost time, traffic delays cost the nation $78.2 billion, the study estimated.

The trends showed Philadelphia drivers, like those in the rest of the nation, spending more time and money sitting in traffic. In 1982, Philadelphia-area drivers wasted 16 hours a year; in 1995, they wasted 27.

"Congestion is here to stay, because we keep putting more cars on the same roadway network," said Barry Seymour, executive director of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. "The rate of car ownership and car use is far exceeding the roadway capacity."

The nation's most congested metro area is Los Angeles, where each traveler lost 72 hours a year to congestion. In San Francisco, Washington, and Atlanta, it was 60 hours a year.

Drivers in this region agreed yesterday that their commuting cousins in other cities probably have it worse.

"I lived in D.C. It was just awful," said Richard Kaser, 55, of Philadelphia. "That's my barometer. That city is the worst."

Kim Evans, 47, of Villanova, said: "Boston is far worse, Atlanta is far worse, L.A. is far worse, D.C. is far worse. We don't live in fear of traffic in Philadelphia."

Dave Tozer, 33, of Philadelphia, said yesterday, "The biggest problem I see is 76. If I have any criticism, it's that the city is not as elastic with accidents or things like that happen. It gets hung up with things like that."

Diane Perry, 41, of Delaware County, sounded a similar cautionary note: "Stay off of 76. City Line, too." Asked about ways to fight congestion, she said: "I'd say better parking, the availability of parking. Now everyone is dropping off and picking up people, and there's double and triple parking."

The Philadelphia area benefits from its relatively slow population growth, compared to other regions, said Tim Lomax, coauthor of the study.

Lomax said solutions to congestion include: Reducing highway bottlenecks, increasing flexible work hours for commuters, increasing telecommuting, and improving public transportation.

"The problem has grown too rapidly and is too complex for only one technology or service to be 'the solution' in most regions," the report said.

Seymour said, "We're not in a position to build a lot of new roads, but if we can do a better job of managing the systems we have now, we'll be better off."

Read the report at http://go.philly.com/congestionEndText

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