The report is a heavily mathematical analysis based on an array of travel and roadway information supplied by cities, states and the Federal Highway Administration for 1999. It is not a stopwatch assessment of actual travel on any actual day on any actual roadway. In other words, a trip that would take you one hour at the speed limit would take you one hour and 48 minutes in rush hour.
Traffic congestion is a major problem and is getting worse.
Not only here, but around the nation. Almost all cities show increasingly severe congestion for longer periods of time affecting more of the transportation network than in earlier reference points for the study. Congestion costs are increasing. Road expansions do slow the growth in congestion. The report suggests that building new roads can't be the only answer, but needs to be part of a balanced approach including additional roadway capacity, more efficient roadway operations, buses, carpools, HOV lanes, trains, and more.