Region Is Again Ranked No. 1 in Traffic Congestion

Next time you are caught in traffic jam, and you grumble to yourself “This is the worst,” you’ll be right.

Once again, the Los Angeles metropolitan area was deemed as having the worst traffic congestion in America, according to an annual study of traffic patterns done by the Texas Transportation Institute released Tuesday.

That makes it 15 years in a row.

Researchers, using something called a Travel Rate Index based on 1997 traffic flows, calculated that it took motorists in Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties 50% longer to complete a trip during rush hour than it did to make the same trip during off hours.

In Orange County, a recent transit study found 23 choke points--spots prone to chronic congestion.

Supervisor Tom Wilson, who chairs the Orange County Transportation Authority’s board, said, “When you look at a traffic study like that you see that what traffic is today, that’s what it was yesterday. Do we want it to be like that tomorrow?”

For that reason, he said, some Orange County officials have pushed for toll roads, carpool lanes and a light-rail line through the county’s core cities. “We need to find some other mode of transportation other than pouring concrete and making another lane that will be congested as soon as it opens.”

Motorists in the area are losing 82 hours a year in delays--maybe more than they get in vacation time, according to the study.

The institute estimates traffic delays cost Southland motorists $12,405 a year on average.

Part of that cost stems from an average of $1,370 spent on 1,108 gallons of fuel that researchers calculate are wasted by the typical Los Angeles motorist each year because of traffic delays. That is about 300 gallons more wasted fuel than New York City, which ranked second in that category.

If there is good news in the study, it is that traffic congestion in the area has leveled off in recent years.

The 82 hours motorists lost to traffic during 1997 compares with 79 hours lost in 1990.

Since the transportation institute began collecting figures in 1982, Los Angeles’ so-called peak period time delay index grew by 65%, but that is well below the 460% increase in San Bernardino-Riverside and even higher percentage growth in many other cities.

Los Angeles gets the No. 1 ranking in most categories because it had such a large head start, said Tim Lomax, a researcher with the institute, which is affiliated with Texas A & M University.

“It’s like building up a huge lead in the first quarter of a football game,” he said. “The other guys may catch up, but they haven’t yet.”

The annual studies by the institute provided fuel to both sides of a growing national debate about urban sprawl and the role that highway construction plays in it.