Miserable Traffic Costs Chicagoans Billions...

BY MARY WISNIEWSKI Transportation Reporter, Chicago Sun-Times

August 6, 2008

(Photo by Keith Hale/Sun-Times file)

STUDY SAYS $7.3 BILLION A YEAR

Area's clogged roads eat up time, fuel, productivity and pollute air

The toll --
The Metropolitan Planning Council study Tuesday found that congestion costs the Chicago area $7.3 billion a year and 87,000 jobs. The total includes the following:

• $6.98 billion in lost time.
• $354 million in wasted fuel, based on 2005 prices. With today's prices, the cost would be about $681 million.
• $33 million in environmental damages.

The report also found that the cost of wasted time per car due to congestion averages $1,579 per year. Congestion adds 22 percent to travel times during the rush hour, or about 66 minutes each week for the average driver.

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For Aaron Miller, who owns Base Limousine Service in Skokie, traffic congestion isn't just aggravation -- it's money. He says it could cost his company about $1,350 a day. "We probably lose the ability of doing two trips a day, per car," Miller said.

Miller said he's been losing money since the Dan Ryan Expy. went under construction three years ago, and the drain has continued with construction on the Edens and I-294. Miller's experience supports a Metropolitan Planning Council study Tuesday that found traffic congestion in the Chicago area costs $7.3 billion a year in lost time, fuel, productivity and environmental damage. The cost is nearly twice the largest previous estimate. That figure is expected to grow by 55 percent by 2030, to $11.3 billion, if nothing is done to solve it.

Up to a point, the more people and goods move through an area, the healthier its economy is, said planning council President MarySue Barrett. "But many of our roads have reached the tipping point, where the costs of congestion outweigh the benefits," Barrett said. "As a region, we must start to identify and invest in smart solutions."

Conducted for the planning council by HDR Decision Economics, the report figures that each vehicle-hour lost to congestion costs $24.03. Congestion on arterial routes like La Grange and Roosevelt roads is actually a bigger problem outside of Cook County than expressway jams, and lead to more air pollution, the report found.

The report notes that congestion solutions must not just take traffic off expressways and dump it onto arterials. Congestion solutions must be regional in scope, and must address wasted time as well as fuel, the report found.

Robert Adelman, president of Roadco Transportation Services, said that congestion has definitely gotten worse in recent years and impacts his Cicero truck company's ability to be on time. He has seen businesses move away from Chicago to Wisconsin or Indiana, to get away from both congestion and Cook County taxes. Adelman thinks the solution is to get more people off the roads and onto mass transit. "But the state doesn't want to fund it, and the U.S. doesn't want to fund it," Adelman said. "Only in America -- other countries fund mass transit."