Commute times for residents of 10 cities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties increased an average of 13 percent between 1980 and 1990. In the Bay Area, vehicle hours of delay are projected to grow by 249 percent by 2020. Approximately 37 percent of Californians do not even have a driver's license and must depend on safe and convenient public transit, walking, and bicycling facilities to get where they need to go. Eighteen percent of California's traffic- related fatalities and serious injuries happen to pedestrians. A recent study found that the most dangerous places to walk, especially for children, are newer sprawling developments in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley.
Motor vehicles account for approximately half of all air pollution emissions.
While cleaner vehicles initially helped air quality, the increase in vehicle trips and vehicle miles traveled is eroding each region's ability to clean the air. Developing more land on the fringes of communities and building more roads and highways will not solve these problems. Even though billions of dollars have been poured into expanding freeway capacity throughout the state, a recent study showed that every 10 percent increase in road capacity is followed by a subsequent nine percent increase in traffic volume within five years. There are alternatives to continuing sprawling land use patterns and automobile dependence. Communities can return to traditional land use patterns, which mix housing, jobs, shopping, services, and other uses in the same areas and at higher densities, thus providing sufficient ridership for transit and allowing people to walk and bicycle to destinations.