The Bush administration unveiled a six-point plan Tuesday intended to fight mounting highway, freight and aviation congestion.
Americans lose 3.7 billion hours and 2.3 billion gallons of fuel each year due to traffic jams, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta.
He detailed government initiatives to help fix traffic problems, including recruiting more private-sector investment in infrastructure, fast-tracking existing highway projects, and promoting alternatives such as telecommuting and flexible scheduling.
Those efforts could help alleviate the Washington metro area’s transportation problems, but “they are not a substitute for significantly increasing highway, bridge and public transit capacity,” said Bob Chase, president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance.
Chase said the region already has an extensive network of express buses, commuter rail service and van-pooling programs but still ranks third in the nation for congestion.
Mineta also said the new National Strategy to Reduce Congestion on America’s Transportation Network would seek to relieve freight bottlenecks and lay out a higher-capacity aviation system.
The plan is “very much consistent with what we’re wanting to do in this region,” said Ron Kirby, director of transportation planning for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
He said he supports the involvement of the private sector and the use of varying highway tolls, another aspect of the Bush administration’s plan, as a way to encourage people to drive at different times of day.
Congestion growth
» Congestion in the Washington metropolitan area costs motorists about $2.4 billion in wasted time and fuel each year.
» Over the past two decades, congestion has significantly worsened. In 2003, highway traffic in the largest U.S. cities affected 67 percent of travel, up from 33 percent in 1982.
» The rate of congestion growth has been greater in rural areas than in urban areas.
Source: U.S. Department of Transportation
