ATSSA The Signal January February 2020

American Traffic Safety Services Association 18 Innovation & Technical News Since the 2008-2009 economic reces- sion, many of the nation’s major cities have experienced a recovery, but with it has come an increase in traffic conges- tion, delayed arrival times, greater fuel usage, and lost personal time, a report by the Texas A&M Transportation Insti- tute (TTI) found. TTI partneredwith automotive and trans- portationdata provider INRIX toproduce the report, which looked at 494 urban areas across the U.S. The report covers figures from1982–2017 andwas funded by the Texas Department of Transpor- tation (TxDOT). “In 2017, the average commuter wasted nearly seven full working days in extra traffic delay, which translated to over $1,000 in personal costs. These are real impacts to people and businesses in our cities, and the problem does not appear to be letting up, especially for fast- growing areas,” Marc Williams, deputy executive director of TxDOT stated in the “2019 Urban Mobility Report.” According toWilliams, delay costs in the topU.S. urban localitieshave increasedby almost 47 percent over the past decade, making it important to find solutions. “The valueof investing inour nation’s trans- portation infrastructure ina strategic and effective manner cannot be overstated as these added costs impact our national productivity, quality of life, economic efficiency, and global competitiveness,” Williams stated. TTI citedmany factors as contributors to increased traffic congestion and a result- ing decrease in transportationmobility and lost resources. The report found: • $166 billion worth of time and fuel was wasted (plus $21 billion for truck operations); • An additional 8.8 billion hours of travel was spent; and • Extra fuel costs amounted to 3.3 billion gallons. The report also stated that the average urban commuter spent more than 50 hours of additional travel time on U.S. roadways and consumed 21 additional gallons of fuel, which cost commuters more than $1,000 in 2017. Localities across the country have started trying a variety of strategies to tackle the problems, including technology that quickly communicates the location of delays, but there is no quick fix and no single solution that works everywhere, according to the report. “A component of the solution lies in iden- tifying mobility level targets and imple- menting a range of solutions to achieve them in service to broader quality of life and economic productivity goals,” the report states. Currently, there are widespread initia- tives and technological advancements on both the state and federal levels aimed at curbing jampacked highways and increasing mobility on America’s roadways, as well as streamlining access to multimodal transportation options. This could include increasing pedestrian connections, parkingmanagement, and adding managed High Occupancy Vehi- cle (HOV) lanes and Dynamic Message Boards (DMS) to highways. According to TTI’s Policy Research Center, something as simple as replacing a four- way intersection with a roundabout can reduce delays and fuel use by eliminat- ing unnecessary stops, increase safety by limiting conflict points, and lessen maintenance costs by removing the need for traffic signals. However, many of the benefits can be affected by things like speed enforcement, availability of right of way, and driver education. “No single approach will ever solve this complex problem,” said Tim Lomax, a report author andResearch Fellowat TTI. “We know what works. What the coun- try needs is a robust, information-pow- ered conversation at the local, state, and national levelsaboutwhat steps shouldbe taken. We havemany strategies; we have to figure out the right solution for each problem and a way to pay for them.”  To read the 2019 Urban Mobility Report, go to mobility.tamu.edu/umr. Economic recovery brings increased traffic Average commuter lost nearly seven workdays from traffic issues No single approachwill ever solve this complex problem.