L.A. Again Leads Nation--in Congestion

We’re No. 1, aspiring to be No. 10.

The Texas Transportation Institute has proclaimed the Los Angeles region the nation’s most congested--again. Actually, that’s “again” for the 14th year in a row, which is even unluckier than the Friday the 13th on which the study was released.

But does that make the state’s busiest interchange--the junction of the Harbor and Santa Monica freeways--ground zero of traffic hell?

For Orange County commuters, that distinction might go to the vividly named Orange Crush--the fifth-busiest interchange in the country--where the convergence of the Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Orange freeways brings nearly half a million cars together every day.

Or perhaps that diabolical label applies to the Riverside Freeway, the “Caltrans linear parking lot” to some aficionados, where more than 200,000 cars a day crawl along the eastern segment of the road.

Don’t despair, though. While our transit fate may seem star-crossed, it’s only gridlocked. Better yet, we are not alone.

Although the Texas study found that traffic got worse in the Los Angeles region--hardly news to anyone but an agoraphobic--congestion grew even worse in a number of other cities.

Like an open parking space, comfort is where you find it.

The institute’s study ranks regions using a roadway congestion index based on traffic volume and road mileage. The Los Angeles region--which, since small distinctions are lost on Texans, includes Orange and Ventura counties--topped the list as it has for every year since the study began, with an index of 1.57 in 1996. That was up from 1.54 the year before.

“Does that surprise you?” said Dawn Helou, a Caltrans engineer in Los Angeles who works down the hall from a map of the freeway system that is often lit up with bright red lights at rush hour to reflect the congestion.

“This isn’t a problem with an easy solution,” said Ellen Burton, an analyst with the Orange County Transportation Authority who specializes in long-range planning. “We’ll be playing catch-up with growth in the county for the next 20 years.”

Transportation experts in Southern California note that “rush hour”--where traffic slows to 35 mph or less--now extends on the San Diego Freeway through West Los Angeles from 6 to 10 a.m. and noon to 7 p.m.

Now that the two-hour window of opportunity has been revealed, it probably will close too.

On the brighter side, Helou noted: “I don’t know any other city that could move 3 1/2 million vehicles in and out of the city every day.”

The next most clogged cities, according to the survey, were Washington, Miami-Hialeah, Chicago and San Francisco-Oakland. San Diego finished ninth and San Bernardino-Riverside, 10th.

Denver and Boston, competing against Los Angeles to host the 2000 Democratic national convention, finished 16th and 23rd, respectively, but their weather isn’t as nice, so there is nothing to look at while you’re stuck in traffic.

And, in a finding that won’t help Los Angeles win a National Football League team either, Houston--believe it or not--and Phoenix were the only big cities studied where gridlock levels dropped between 1982 and 1996.

On the other hand, San Diego and Las Vegas saw their congestion levels increase by more than 50% since 1982, according to the study.

The study found that Los Angeles had the highest annual congestion cost ($10.8 billion), the most amount of wasted time (684 million hours) and the most wasted fuel (984 million gallons). A rush-hour trip also took 50% longer than travel at other times in Los Angeles, as well as in San Francisco-Oakland, Seattle-Everett, Wash., Washington and Las Vegas.

But this really isn’t any surprise, is it?

So legendary are L.A. traffic jams that they have been used by other cities in support of mass transit. A Denver campaign in support of a rail measure known as 4A used the slogan “4A or L.A.” And TV ads in support of a proposed rail line in Portland warned, “Light rail or Los Angeles.” Even traffic reports every six minutes no longer suffice in Los Angeles, which now has its own all-traffic radio station.

Some transit experts have said the Texas study exaggerates Los Angeles’ traffic problems, noting that the region’s traffic speeds compared favorably to those in other cities.

The study by the Texas Transportation Institute, part of Texas A & M University, is used by transit planners around the country for devising strategies in dealing with traffic woes. Several state transportation departments, including Caltrans, participated in the study.

The authors said the findings do not mean that “all the solutions should be in the form of road construction,” something that is difficult anyway in the Los Angeles region because of land costs and environmental and political opposition to building and expanding freeways.

Researchers recommended that transportation planners consider a range of strategies, some of which are already under consideration, such as building bus and carpool lanes, coordinating traffic signals and removing broken-down cars from the roadways.

Caltrans officials noted that the agency plans to spend $18 billion over the next six years to improve and maintain the freeway system.

“Our only hope is to start promoting ride-sharing,” said Helou, the Caltrans senior engineer who oversees high-occupancy vehicle operations in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Caltrans plans to double the number of carpool lanes--from 305 to 680 miles--in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties by 2015.

Asked whether the study would have any effect on Los Angeles’ efforts to win the Democratic Party convention, Anita Zusman, vice president of legislative affairs for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement: “While we do not dispute that Los Angeles, like every big city, has traffic, there are numerous mitigation efforts planned both as ongoing programs and specifically geared toward alleviating traffic concerns associated with hosting special events, just as we did for the 1984 Olympics.”

“I grew up in New York,” said Caltrans spokesman Jim Drago. “I think the traffic in California isn’t nearly as bad as it is in other big cities.”

In fact, of the 70 cities studied, the least congested of all was Bakersfield. There are, of course, reasons for that.

*

Times staff writer Megan Garvey contributed to this report.

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On Top of the Bottleneck

The Los Angeles region once again topped the list of the nation 3/8s most congested metropolitan areas, according to a study by the Texas Transportation Institute.

1. L.A.-Orange-Ventura counties

2. Washington

3. Miami

4. Chicago

5. San Francisco

6. Seattle

7. Detroit

8. Atlanta

9. San Diego

10. San Bernardino-Riverside counties

Note: Ranking is based on 1996 data, the latest information available. Researchers use a roadway congestion index, a density measurement that considers traffic volume and the number of freeway and major street lanes.

Source: Texas Transportation Institute