Stuck in Traffic? Think Sprawl

To no one’s surprise, Los Angeles is the nation’s most traffic-congested region for the 15th year in a row, according to a respected study. It’s clearly time for some new thinking on this old problem.

Many American officials--including L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan--have journeyed to the mecca of mass transit, Curitiba, Brazil, and come back singing the praise of its privatized bus line and dedicated bus lanes. It’s too bad more of those folks don’t come back with the whole story.

Curitiba’s success in the war against congestion is also the result of its war against urban sprawl. That, according to Gordon Linton, former head of the Federal Transit Administration, is the basis of its strict 30-year master plan for development. The concept is simple: Avoid poorly planned development that simply moves farther and farther out, forcing ever-longer commutes. Design neighborhoods and communities and employment locations along mass transit routes. Without that kind of planning, the congestion will only get worse.

The Texas Transportation Institute’s latest report on traffic congestion in urban America is a case in point. The Los Angeles region, including Orange and Ventura counties, may be the worst, but other urban areas in the top 10 also illustrate why transportation solutions alone are not enough.

There’s Washington, D.C., No. 2 even though it is blessed with one of the best subway systems in the world. At No. 3 is Seattle, lately touted as an example to Los Angeles as the right way to do mass transit. Throw in Boston, No. 5 despite the ease of getting around town without a car. In its own class is Houston, No. 8, one of the few big U.S. cities to embark on a massive road-building campaign. The results? The city has barely kept pace with its increasing congestion, and it moved ahead of Los Angeles this year to become the smoggiest city in America.

Car pooling has been represented as another solution. But car pooling has become less and less feasible as working people make more side trips on their way to and from work. That’s another result of sprawl.

Communities that will succeed in gaining control over congestion will use a mix of solutions, including road building and mass transit. But Southern California will add the population equivalent of a city the size of Chicago in the next 20 years. That new growth will have to be well planned, with housing and jobs and transportation lines within easy distance of one another.

Effective regional planning has not been a strong suit in Southern California, or in many other large urban areas. But the truth is, it’s the only way to significantly reduce the time Americans waste sitting in traffic.