Thursday, January 20, 2011
Road Raging
I've driven in D.C., Chicago, and New York City and I always get a chuckle when I hear people in the 'burgh complain about traffic. Folks, you have no idea what traffic is.
The most sophisticated number crunching done on traffic congestion says the average Washington area driver loses 70 hours a year - almost three full days - crawling along in traffic, tying the region with Chicago for worst in the country. Los Angeles, the perennial king of congestion, comes in third, with 63 blown hours.
We rank 29th on the Travel Time index, 26th for annual delay and 33rd for travel stress out of the 101 cities studied. As were ranked 26th in terms of population, I'd say we're pretty average.
Of course, this could change in the future, as mass transit cuts force more commuters onto the highways.
