Consensus: Traffic Sucks

By vouchey in News on May 10, 2005 1:36PM

The Chicago Tribune and Sun Times report data released yesterday by the Texas Transportation Institute that Chicago's highway commutes rank among the worst the in the nation. Trouble is, the Trib and Sun Times each lead with different stats from the report. And to make it more confusing, the report differs from another statistic on commute times collected by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Trib quotes the TTI as saying we are second-worst commutes, with an average 58-hours stuck in traffic in 2003. Sun Times quotes us as the second worst. The Census says we're the second-worst commute, with an average of 33.2 minutes per day spent in traffic.

What gives?

The 2005 Urban Mobility Study, conducted through a center at Texas A&M, has been conducted since 1986 and is funded by numerous state transporation departments around the country. Since these are the nation's road builders, they tend to be car-centric in their interests. The Census study, which has been conducted since 1996, takes into account not only car commutes, but also public transportation, including rail and water-borne transit.

Here's where the biggest differences lie: the Texas A&M study only attempts to determine congestion during a commute, not necessarily length of commute. The Census study attempts to determin total commute time. So, if you were commuting from Madison, Wisconsin to Rockford, IL every day -- about an hour-fifteen each way but with little congestion -- you wouldn't show up on the Texas A&M study, but you'd really effect the Census average commute. If you drove from Schaumburg to the Loop every day down the Kennedy, you'd have a big impact on the Texas A&M study, since Kennedy congestion sucks -- and you'd show up on the Census study because your trip would be so long. Finally, if you took the El to and from the Harlem Blue Line stop every day, you wouldn't even be considered on the Texas A&M study, but you'd show up on the Census report.

True the results for each study are the same: Chicago commutes are long. But the remedies for each study are different. Because the Texas A&M study is about congestion, the remedy is build more, and wider roads. If we had 16 lanes in each direction, the problem would be solved for a while (until more people took that road, and congestion built up again). But the Census study is neutral in bias, since it considers more modes of transportation. One could possible resolve commute lengths with denser central cities, more bus service, more rail lines, wider roads, or regular helicopter service.

Image via the Smithsonian Institution.