|
Why
We Need to ReBuild California:
The Road Crisis |
California
has a transportation crisis.
It's threatening our quality of life. It's threatening our economy. Our state has the worst roads in the nation and three of the country's five most congested urban areas. Together, these conditions pose a long-term threat to our economy, our environment and the way we live.
Here are the facts:
Congestion:
- Approximately half - 49 percent - of California's urban freeways are considered congested because they carry more traffic than they were designed to handle.
- California has three of the five most congested urban areas in the nation. Los Angeles is the most congested, followed by the San Francisco-Oakland area. San Diego ranks fifth. Sacramento, San Jose and Bakersfield are tied at 15th.
- In San Francisco-Oakland: Seventy-five percent of freeway lane miles are congested. Motorists spend 73 hours a year sitting in traffic. Congestion costs nearly $3 billion a year in extra fuel, wasted time and lost productivity. That amounts to $760 per resident.
- In Sacramento: Seventy percent of freeway lane miles are congested. Motorists spend 36 hours a year sitting in traffic. Congestion costs $830 million a year in extra fuel, wasted time and lost productivity. That amounts to $605 per resident.
- In San Jose: Fifty-five percent of freeway lane miles are congested. Motorists spend 53 hours a year sitting in traffic. Congestion costs $1.2 billion a year in extra fuel, wasted time and lost productivity. That amounts to $750 per resident.
- In Los Angeles: Eighty-five percent of freeway lane miles are congested. Motorists spend 93 hours a year sitting in traffic. Congestion costs $12.5 billion a year in extra fuel, wasted time and lost productivity. That amounts to $1,000 per resident in lost time and wasted fuel.
- In San Diego: Seventy percent of freeway lane miles are congested. Motorists spend 47 hours a year sitting in traffic. Congestion costs $1.8 billion a year in extra fuel, wasted time and lost productivity. That amounts to $675 per resident.
- The total cost of congestion in California is $20.7 billion a year.
- California - home of the fifth largest economy in the world - has the worst roads in the nation, according to a recent report by the Road Information Program.
- Seventy-two percent of our major roads are rated in poor or mediocre condition, meaning the pavement is badly cracked or broken, or has defects such as rutting or extensive patching, according to the Federal Highway Administration. The national average is 25 percent.
- Three out of 10 of the state's overpasses and bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
- California motorists pay an extra $600 to $700 a year in vehicle operating costs as a result of driving on substandard roads, the highest such cost in the nation. In total, driving on bad roads in costs Californians $12 billion a year in extra vehicle operating costs. This is in addition to the $20.7 billion in extra fuel, wasted time, and lost productivity resulting from congestion.
- Five out of the ten urban areas with the "bumpiest rides" in the nation are in California, according to a May 2003 Road Information Program report. Los Angeles and San Jose top the list with 67% of major roads and highways unacceptable, followed by San Diego and San Francisco-Oakland with 61% unacceptable and Sacramento is sixth on the list with 50% of its major roads and highways unacceptable.
- The May 2003 TRIP report also determined the cost to motorists caused by these poor road conditions: Los Angeles motorists pay an extra $706 annually, San Jose an extra $705, San Francisco-Oakland an extra $674 and Sacramento motorists an extra $609 annually.
- In 2000, the California Transportation Commission identified more than $116 billion in unfunded transportation projects needed just to shore up our existing system of roads and highways.
The short answer is more and more people, not enough maintenance and not enough lanes. Along with Maryland, California leads the nation with the most heavily-traveled roads. The burden: An average of 2.6 million vehicles annually.
And during 1990s, travel in California increased 10 times faster than road capacity. In fact, vehicle miles of travel in California jumped 93 percent between 1980 and 2000, nearly doubling from 155 billion miles to 300 billion miles.
And yet in California over the last 25 years, highway lane miles have increased only 8 percent.
Meanwhile, maintenance budgets have not kept pace with deterioration. In the Bay Area for example, policy makers in 2001 left basic maintenance of local streets and roads with a nearly $3 billion funding shortfall over the next 25 years.
In all, California invests less per capita than any other state on capital highway needs. The state spent just $82 per capita in 2002. That's a meager 56 percent of the national average of $147.
Why Fixing Our Roads and Highway Makes Sense
- A 1999 study by prestigious Cambridge Systematics showed that improving traffic bottlenecks saves lives, reduces pollution and cuts commute times.
- Safety experts agree that outmoded road design contributes to nearly one-third of all fatal crashes.
- According to a recent federal report, every dollar invested in highway improvements over the last 40 years has helped save American society $2 in health care, insurance, lost wages and productivity.
- Another study, this one in 2000 by Virginia Polytechnic Institute Economist Thomas Hogarty, found that commuters and citizens nationwide would reap more than $336 billion in economic benefits from improvements to the nation's 166 worst bottlenecks. That shows what can happen in California.
- Every $1 spent on highway construction results in $5.70 in economic benefits, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
- According to the Texas Transportation Institute's 2004 Urban Mobility report, more road and public transportation projects - and more capacity - are crucial to relieving congestion in the future.
- People who were time-shifting to avoid congestion can drive at a time that is more valuable to them.
- Businesses that had moved to avoid congestion may be replaced by other businesses that benefit from the added capacity.
- People who had moved to alternate routes switch back to the route with new capacity, thus reducing congestion on those alternate routes.
Sources for the information on this page include the Texas Transportation Institute, The Road Information Program, The Federal Highway Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation and Caltrans.
