Last year, the study computed the averages based on an estimated number of drivers in each region. This year, the researchers decided to use population figures to come up with more accurate indicators. Though the group has done the study for 13 years only, it used transportation data from the past 17 years to conclude that Los Angeles is the nation's most congested metropolitan area. The combined morning and evening commute regarded as rush hour in metro areas has doubled in the past 20 years, increasing from three hours in 1982 to almost six hours in 1999. Even with gas prices going up, it would have to reach the level of something like the crisis in the '70s before that had an effect.
People are willing to pay a premium for their cars.
The results of the study come as no surprise to local transportation planning agencies, which in recent months have adopted long-range transit plans to alleviate congestion. Transportation policy groups immediately seized on the Texas Transportation Institute study as evidence that more attention should be paid to easing the state's traffic woes. Fisher pointed out that two-thirds of all goods shipped from California sites are transported on trucks. Without new spending on infrastructure, Fisher said, traffic congestion could become as big a threat to the state economy as the power crisis. But other transportation watchdogs criticized some of the conclusions drawn from the report.