THE GROWTH OF RECURRING ROADWAY CONGESTION: CUMULATIVE ANALYSIS OF SELECTED URBANIZED AREAS

This paper reports on the 1987 to 1990 growth in the supply of and the demand and congestion on principal arterials in urbanized areas (UZAs). This is an update and expansion of a discussion offered in the 1991 Report of the Secretary of Transportation to the U.S. Congress. The Highway Performance Monitoring System served as the database for both studies. Level of service "F" (LOS F), characterized by forced or breakdown traffic flow, was chosen as the congestion threshold. Roadway supply was measured by lane-mileage, demand by the daily vehicle-miles of travel (DVMT), the extent of congestion by the DVMT experiencing LOS F (DVMT), and the extent and duration of LOS F by the lane-mile duration index (LMDI, in "lane-mile-hours"). Fifty-two of the nation's 115 UZAs with population greater than 199,999, based on the 1980 Census, were analyzed. The 1990 principal arterial DVMT in the UZAs studied represented 33.9% of the total arterial DVMT in all 115 UZAs. The supply of and the demand, DVMT and LMDI on principal arterials in the UZAs studied increased by 4.2, 10.8, 53.2, and 48.5%, respectively, between 1987 and 1990. The portion of the DVMT experiencing LOS F on principal arterials increased from 0.9 to 1.3%. In the 52 UZAs, the percent increase in principal arterial DVMT was 4.9 times the percent growth in demand and 12.6 times the percent growth in supply. The ratio of the DVMT in the 13 UZAs with population greater than 999,999 to that in all 52 UZAs decreased from 92.7 to 91.1%, while the ratio based on the LMDI decreased from 90.8 to 90.6% between 1987 and 1990. These statistics indicate that congestion is concentrated in the largest UZAs, although there was a modest spreading of congestion to the smaller UZAs. The trends emphasize the need for congestion mitigation.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper appears in Volume I of the 4th National Conference on Transportation Planning Methods Applications, Session 4b: ISTEA Management Systems.
• Corporate Authors:

  Faris (Jerry M)

  1704 Thomasville Road, Suite 186
  Tallahassee, FL  United States  32303
• Authors:
  • Cottrell, W D
• Conference:
  • 4th National Conference on Transportation Planning Methods Applications, Volumes I and II. A Compendium of Papers
  • Location: Daytona Beach, Florida
  • Date: 1993-5-3 to 1993-5-7
• Publication Date: 1993-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 521-537

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Arterial highways; Conferences; Daily; Level of service; Statistics; Streets; Traffic congestion; Trend (Statistics); Urban areas; Vehicle miles of travel
• Uncontrolled Terms: Increase; Mileage
• Old TRIS Terms: Lane mile duration index
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00639944
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 8 1993 12:00AM