On Thursday, July 4, 2002 at 14:06:16 (-0700) Michael Perelman writes: >Help me out here Doug. Usually, I would be inclined to believe Census figures >over something from Texas, but > >Texas Transportation Institute. 2002. 2002 Urban Mobility Study >http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/ >"Congestion is growing in areas of every size. The 75 urban areas >in this report range from New York City down to those with 100,000 >population. All of the size categories show more severe congestion >that lasts a longer period of time and affects more of the >transportation network in 2000 than in 1982. The average annual >delay per peak road traveler climbed from 16 hours in 1982 to 62 >hours in 2000. And delay over the same period more than quadrupled >in areas with less than 1 million people." > >Is there anybody who sees something other than rapid congestion? Or >am I blinded by living in California.
Note that what Doug claims is not necessarily inconsistent with this. Improvement in public transportation may very well entail a deterioration in private transportation. The numbers above, for 250 days a year (workweek travel) show delay increase from 3.8 minutes per day to 14.8 minutes per day. This doesn't seem like an accurate picture of "congestion", if I've interpreted it correctly. I think what would be useful are figures showing the relative amounts spent on private versus public transportation. I think the ratios are usually about 4:1 or more. In Texas, I imagine they are much higher. In NYC, perhaps they approach parity or better? Bill
