TRAFFIC CONGESTIONS * USA - Metro areas' traffic congestion up 11% in 2010

Kirkland, Wash,USA -USA TODAY/Inrix National Traffic Scorecard, by Larry Copeland -13 March 2011: -- Nine smaller metropolitan areas — including Birmingham, Ala., Buffalo and Milwaukee — exceeded their 2007 congestion levels and are the highest on record... INRIX, collects traffic information from more than 4 million vehicles equipped with GPS devices and other sources for its annual National Traffic Scorecard report... The increase in congestion is fueled by more people driving and by people driving more, the report says... Its findings are supported by a new report from the government showing Americans drove 3 trillion miles last year, the most since 2007, which is before the financial collapse and unemployment shot up. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says drivers in the USA drove 20.5 billion more miles in 2010 than in 2009, a 0.7% increase... In 2010, travel on urban interstates rose about 1% from 2009 and is nearing 2007 levels, which were the highest ever recorded. Barring shocks to the economy or big sustained increases in fuel prices, volumes on these roads appear to be on a trajectory to setting records this year, INRIX says...(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images: Los Angeles is the most congested city in the U.S., passing the New York area)

Urban congestion * USA - D.C. area co-leads nation in traffic congestion

Search nation's largest urban areas to see commuters' yearly delays, excess fuel and congestion costs

Washington,DC,USA -The Washington Post, by Ashley Halsey III -January 20, 2011: ... The number of drivers in the Washington region who say they frequently feel uncontrollable anger toward another driver has doubled in the past five years, according to a Washington Post poll taken last year. Almost a third of drivers said they're overcome with that wild rage from time to time... One reason for that boiling frustration is contained in a report released Thursday, which found that Washington ranks first in the nation when it comes to hours wasted stuck in traffic... The most sophisticated number crunching done on traffic congestion says the average Washington area driver loses 70 hours a year - almost three full days - crawling along in traffic, tying the region with Chicago for worst in the country. Los Angeles, the perennial king of congestion, comes in third, with 63 blown hours... The news came in the annual national traffic survey done by the Texas Transportation Institute, a highly regarded research group based at Texas A&M University... (See Poll) (Photo from blog.thesietch.org: traffic congestion Washington,DC)

Traffic Congestion * USA - Rebounding with economy

Houston,TX,USA -Fleet Owner, by Wendy Leavitt -Jan 21, 2011:  --  According to the just-released 2010 edition of the Urban Mobility Report, published by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) at Texas A&M University, after two years of slight declines in overall traffic congestion – attributable to the economic downturn and higher fuel prices – leading indicators now suggest that as the economy is rebounding, so too are traffic problems...  For motor carriers and shippers hoping to save time by moving freight during off hours, the report offers more specific data on the best such opportunities:

* Approximately half of the total delays occur in the midday and overnight (outside of the peak hours of 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.) times of day when shippers and carriers generally have expected lighter traffic

* Midday congestion is not as severe, but it can cause problems, especially for time-sensitive shipments.

In Chicago, for example, truck delays resulted in a “congestion cost” of more than $ 3,349 million. Slow traffic in New York cost $3,133 million thanks to the time trucks spent stuck in traffic there...

TRAFFIC CONGESTION * China - Wants to tame traffic in Beijing with new license law

Beijing residents must participate the city’s lottery system... Drivers that don’t have this special plate will not be allowed into the city center during rush hour...

Beijing,China -Tainted Green, by Kathryn Robbins -December 27, 2010:  --  As the Chinese economy grows, a new breed of middle class has emerged in the nation. Their increased buying power has given them access to items that were previously out of reach for many including the dream of buying a car. With this boom comes increased traffic and congestion in the capital, issues that the city hoped to curtail with a new license law which sent car sales in the city spiraling out of control and shocked Chinese automakers... Almost 4.8 million cars flood the capital’s streets each day and Beijing has struggled to keep up with the additional load with new parking garages and street construction... The government plans on reducing the number of license plates issued to Beijing residents to 240,000 in 2011; the city is on track to hand out 700,000 just in 2010. Starting on December 24th, Beijing residents must participate the city’s lottery system in order to snag a plate for their new ride. The majority of the plates will go to first time drivers, 2% will be allocated for commercial cars and trucks, and government vehicles will get 10%. Drivers that don’t have this special Beijing plate will not be allowed into the city center during rush hour... Residents certainly got the message about the 2011 license lotto and went on a buying spree; more than 30,000 new cars were snapped up in a single week. While the jump in sales is great news for car companies right now, the coming months will be a nightmare. Analysts predict that many of the lower-end dealers will be hit the hardest and almost half the dealerships in the city will be forced to close... (Photo: Beijing/China, highway traffic jam)

* China - Multiplying Drivers Run Over Beijing Traffic Plan

(Photo by Nelson Ching/Bloomberg: In September, a vacation exodus - for Autumn Festival - brought all of Beijing to a standstill, leading to 140 traffic backups in the evening rush hour)

Beijing,China -The New York Times (USA), by MICHAEL WINES -December 22, 2010:   ... 280,000 new parking spaces; 1,000 share-a-bike stations; 348 miles of new subway track; 125 miles of new downtown streets; 23 miles of tunnels; 9 new transportation hubs; 3 congestion zones; and 1 cure-all, “the use of modern technology”... Part of the problem is poor planning. Curiously, a city of more than six million drivers has virtually no stop signs, turning intersections into playing fields for games of vehicular chicken. Freeway entrance ramps appear just before exit ramps, guaranteeing multilane disarray as cars seeking to get off try to punch through lines of cars seeking to get on... In September, another vacation exodus — this time for Autumn Festival — gridlocked the entire city, leading to 140 traffic backups in the evening rush hour... China's President Hu Jintao, was said to have rejected some of the more restrictive proposals as too draconian for a progressive national capital. The city opted instead to throw more traffic officers onto the streets... Thus, the latest draft proposal, a clear compromise of better public transportation — longer subways and bike racks — and the parking lots, tunnels and surface roads that Beijing’s auto-centric society craves. And it hints at more restrictive measures, including limiting new car purchases to buyers who can prove Beijing residence, or even capping the number of cars that can be registered here annually... The final proposal is set to be released on Thursday. But car-crazy Beijingers are not waiting for the bad news...

* Traffic, traffic everywhere: Traffic Congestions Worldwide

* Europe - Truck fleets should avoid London and Paris Traffic Congestion

London,UK/Paris,France -Fleet Owner, by Brian Straight -Nov 10, 2010: -- Any fleet with freight to move in Europe, would be well advised to avoid London and Paris. That’s one of the conclusions drawn from a study of European traffic congestion by Inrix, a provider of traffic services... Inrix supplies traffic data to Ford Motor Co., TomTom, MapQuest, Microsoft, and TeleNav to name just a few clients. The company offers statistical analysis of traffic data gleaned from various public and private sources... Drivers in Manchester spend an average of 72 hours per year stuck in traffic, slightly more than the 70 hours drivers in Paris spend, although Paris ranks as the most clogged city in the six European countries studied (U.K., France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg)... London is the second most clogged city, according to the study, with drivers spending an average of 54 hours per year in traffic... In Utrecht, The Netherlands, drivers will sit in traffic for 75 hours per year. Arnhem (67 hours), Den Haag (61) and Amsterdam (65) are also notoriously tough commutes, in that country, Inrix said... On average, the study revealed that drivers in the U.K. can expect a Travel Time Tax (T3)-- the amount of time it takes to travel on a congested road as opposed to the same road during uncongested times-- of 22%... By comparison, the T3 time in France is 14%; in Germany 19%; and 21% in both The Netherlands and Luxembourg...

* UK - Snow chaos spreads to south-east

London,EN,UK -FT, by Bob Sherwood and Chris Tighe -November 30 2010: -- The early winter freeze reached London and the south-east as fresh snow falls caused more disruption across the UK...  Parts of the capital, Kent and Essex were blanketed by snow for the first time this winter, disrupting commuters, drivers and air passengers in what has become the earliest widespread snowfall for 17 years...   The Met Office issued heavy snow warnings for Yorkshire and Humber, east Midlands, east and north-east England, London and south-east England...  The east coast mainline was forced to run an amended timetable and Eurotunnel freight services were suspended at Folkestone...  The north-east endured its sixth day of snow and freezing temperatures. With more than a foot lying even in urban areas, some councils have been forced to suspend bin collections...  Some roads in Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Cumbria were closed, with main roads impassable in Barnsley...    However, in most regions main routes were flowing freely and local authorities seemed better prepared for the freeze than they were last winter... (Photo from t1.gstatic:   Snow has caused substantial delays on the M20)

* USA - Cities with the worst traffic congestion

Chicago, ILL,USA -Fleet Owner, by Sean Kilcarr -November 29, 2010:   ...  NAVTEQ’s Traffic.com site compiled a “top 10” list of the U.S. cities with the worst traffic congestion, according to their own in-house pool of data compiled by 400 experts monitoring traffic 24/7 in 113 national markets... Those cities, listed in order with the very worst at the top, are:

•  New York
•  Washington DC
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Los Angeles
• Philadelphia
• Chicago
• Dallas
• Atlanta
• Houston

Now, traffic congestion in general – and in these cities especially – is nothing new. Indeed, according to the Texas Transportation Institute’s (TTI) urban mobility report, Americans annually lose a total of 4.2 billion hours in traffic congestion, wasting 2.9 billion gallons of fuel and $78.2 billion each year.

* Question is: Though, what to do about it?

New York,NY,USA -Fleet Owner, by Brian Straight -Nov 10, 2010:   ...   Some of the solutions that are being used worldwide to combat traffic congestion don’t go over too well with U.S. drivers. Take the concept of “congestion pricing” for example. It’s been used with great effect in Stockholm, Sweden, but only got the “go ahead” as policy following a city-wide referendum on the matter – and I just don’t think “congestion pricing” as a traffic management strategy would find much support among urban U.S. voters...
(Video:  by ReasonTV, Interview and editing:  Paul Detrick. Camera: Hawk Jensen.- 9 Nov 2010: Can't find curb-side parking? UCLA economist Donald Shoup can find you a space...  Professor Shoup is the author of The High Cost of Free Parking, and points out that, "just because the driver doesn't pay for parking doesn't mean the cost goes away"...  In addition to making it harder to find a spot when you need one, "free" parking exacerbates other problems, from pollution to traffic congestion. Using the power of market pricing, Shoup explains how to fix the parking mess in three steps...  Cities from San Fransisco to Washington, DC are already adopting Shoup's reforms)
 There’s another school of thought on traffic management that focuses on the vehicle parking issue. By removing what these experts dub “free” curbside parking, and implementing high rates of “pay-for-parking” meters in downtown locations, this would drive more folks to use alternative forms of transportation in lieu of cars – thus reducing not only traffic congestion but petroleum consumption and emission levels...

* It'll  be these plans solutions for ?  


 ...  AAA, for one, projected that 42.2 million Americans would don their travellin’ shoes for the recent Thanksgiving holiday this year, with said holiday “travel window” starting Wednesday, November 24 and ending yesterday on Sunday, November 28...  “Increasing traffic congestion places a tremendous burden on the economy as well as individuals. When traffic congestion increases in a region, it reduces the level of personal and commercial mobility, making a region less attractive to both employers and employees,” said William Wilkins, The Road Information Program’s executive director... What you think ... ??? ... (Photo: Pasadena's CAL,USA, freeway tunnel)