UNCC professor David Hartgen says urban commuters will be stuck in traffic purgatory for some time:
"Despite growing frustration, drivers, businesses and political leaders have largely resigned themselves to a new reality: living with traffic jams. But living with it is going to become increasingly difficult.
"Today, just four U.S. cities (Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and San Francisco-Oakland) have daily congestion delays that prolong peak-hour trips by more than 50 percent. That means what should be a 30-minute commute takes 45 minutes. Over the next 25 years, 30 cities will join that club. And drivers in an unlucky 12 cities will face daily bottlenecks worse than the notorious traffic jams in today's Los Angeles -- their commutes will take at least 75 percent longer than off-peak trips, according to a new report by the Reason Foundation.....
"Before you pack up and move to Small Town USA, you should know that things are getting just as bad there. Congestion in Boise, Idaho, is expected to double by 2030. In Albany, N.Y., it will almost triple."
As you well know, local governments believe mass transit is the answer:
"Some cities, like Charlotte and San Jose, Calif., are crossing their fingers and praying that people will embrace transit. In both cities less than 3 percent of daily commuters ride transit. Yet both are spending well over 50 percent of their money on transit projects. If massive numbers of people don't give up their cars -- and there's no evidence they will -- those cities and many like them will have condemned themselves to traffic purgatory."
Hartgen's suggestion: Build more roads:
"....(R)educing traffic congestion is neither particularly difficult nor costly. If extended nationwide, a mobility project focused on relieving congestion primarily through added road capacity would cost about $21 billion per year over 25 years, much cheaper than the ineffective alternatives we're planning now."
We're not at the praying and finger-crossing stage here in the Triad. Let's hope we never get there. The road to traffic heaven is paved with asphalt.