McGraw-Hill’s Handbook of Transportation Engineering - Chapter 22. TRAFFIC CONGESTION

The University of Texas at Austin
2004



Congestion is everywhere. It arises in human activities of all kinds, and its consequences are usually negative. Peak demands for goods and services often exceed the rate at which that demand can be met, creating delay. That delay can take the form of supermarket check-out lines, long waits for a table at a popular restaurant, and after-work crowds at the gym. Yet the context in which we most often hear of congestion posing a serious problem, to ourselves and to our economy, is the movement of people and goods. The average American reports traveling 78 minutes a day, over 80 percent of which is by automobile.1 (NHTS 2001) The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) estimates that over 45 percent of peak-period travel or roughly one-third of total vehicle miles traveled occur under congested conditions in many U.S. metropolitan areas. (Shrank and Lomax 2002) These include the predictable places like Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Atlanta; they also include places like San Diego (California), Tacoma (Washington) and Charlotte (North Carolina). Though crime, education, taxes, and the economy certainly are key issues for voters and legislators, polls regularly report congestion to be the number one local issue.

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