The latest congestion report from the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) ranks a city’s congestion based on controversial and misleading metrics, comparing the delay experienced in peak rush hour traffic to empty roads in the middle of the night. The result is an uneven picture of congestion and commuting that ignores people opting out of congestion; rewards cities with much longer average commute times; punishes cities with a large number of jobs accessible by transit; and fails to acknowledge the 80 percent of trips taken each day outside of rush hour.
The report’s methodology is flawed, but what matters most is what policymakers and citizens decide to do about congestion in their communities.
The TTI report comes at a critical time, as USDOT is developing a new transportation performance measure rule under MAP-21 that will direct states and metro areas to measure traffic congestion and whether or not their planned investments and projects will make commuters’ lives better or worse. It’s extremely important that USDOT produce a better, more accurate measure of congestion. Stay tuned for more on that via the T4America blog.
|
