Sitting in awe-inspiring traffic jams has become part of the American worker’s daily routine. The long lines of glowing red brake lights and the maddeningly intermittent “stop and go” pace have even worked their way into pop culture, inspiring a computer game. Even the great James Taylor once sang, “Well I left my job about five o’clock/ It took fifteen minutes to go three blocks/ Just in time to stand in line/ With a freeway looking like a parking lot.” Taylor’s words may explain why many Americans shout obscenities while alone in their cars, but traffic congestion affects more than just commuters’ mental health and the environment.

As congestion levels continue to rise in metropolitan areas, the cost of wasted fuel and work hours has reached staggering proportions. According to a 2005 annual report by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) which is affiliated with Texas A&M University, the American economy lost $63.1 billion in work hours and wasted fuel in 2003. The total annual delay time for rush hour drivers has nearly tripled in the past two decades. Though these figures go part way toward illustrating the waste caused by traffic congestion, it also harms business in more subtle ways.

The mounting time it takes to get to and from work has affected both employers' hiring practices and businesses' supply chains. Employers now have fewer people within 30 minutes traveling time of their job sites, meaning that the number of potential employees who face nightmare commutes increases. These potential employees could be discouraged from taking specific jobs due to increased travel time, thus limiting the pool of recruits for employers. Additionally, delays on highly traveled trucking routes interrupt the reliability of critical supply chains, which in turn disrupt inventory levels at factories and retail stores. “All of these things impact productivity, the general economy, and social well-being,” according to Alan Pisarski, a consultant to the Transportation Research Board. And, Pisarski said, the worst part “is that none of these things are being quantified by metropolitan planning organizations.” 

The mounting time it takes to get to and from work has affected both employers’ hiring practices and businesses’ supply chains.

While the extent of the damage has not been fully measured, many private and public organizations have been studying the causes of traffic congestion. A report issued in 2007 by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) cited data that shows disproportionate growth in automobile ownership: from 1980 to 2000, the U.S. population grew 24 percent while the number of registered motor vehicles increased 46 percent. Additionally, in 2000 Americans drove 80 percent more vehicle miles than they did in 1980.

The growing affluence of Americans during the end of the 20^th century easily explains the growth in automobiles, but the sluggish growth in highway mileage is harder to pin down. TTI data shows that 7,638 additional lane miles of freeways and major streets were added in 1982, a number which shrunk to a mere 5,002 miles in 2003. In many major metropolitan areas, a major cause of congestion is simple mathematics, too many cars with not enough roads on which to drive.

In developing strategies for alleviating traffic congestion, several cities and metro areas have chosen an innovative approach to roadway expansion. They are adding new lanes with tolls, or placing tolls on existing lanes, in order to provide a premium “reduced traffic” service to commuters at a price. The first managed toll lanes were introduced in Orange County, California in 1995 and have been growing in popularity ever since. Cities that currently have managed toll lanes include San Diego, Denver, and Minneapolis. And one of the most notoriously clogged roadways in the nation, the Capital Beltway in the Washington, DC suburbs, has signed a $900 million contract to construct managed toll lanes called High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes in Northern Virginia.

HOT lanes, which allow carpoolers to ride for free while charging a toll to single riders, were chosen by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) because of the previous success of their High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes. While the HOV lanes have encouraged more carpooling in Virginia, they have become clogged due to the rapid growth in the area and a recent provision which allows hybrid vehicles to travel in the lanes no matter how many passengers they carry.

VDOT turned to two private firms to construct the toll lanes and collect the tolls. VDOT, like other metropolitan transportation agencies saw the benefit in constructing private toll lanes. The private firms will completely finance the construction of the lane while collecting all or a large portion of the tolls. The contract allows Virginia to expand the Beltway while not increasing gas taxes, which is normally the main revenue source for new road construction. “In VDOT’s perspective, it’s a nice offer. They can have new lanes without tapping into public funds,” said David Ungemah, an Associate Research Scientist at TTI who specializes in managed toll lanes.

HOT lanes in other locales have also been generally successful in collecting toll revenues and attracting customers. According to USA Today, the toll lanes in Orange County take in around $13 million in revenue per year, and the Orange County Transportation Authority eventually purchased the lanes for $207.5 million, a $77.5 million profit for the company. Also, Houston has a successful system which has led to a similar project in San Antonio.

Ungemah claims that HOT lanes have a distinct advantage over rail rapid transit because they are less costly than building railroad infrastructure, and they provide a “congestion free guarantee,” as opposed to general highway lanes. The lanes can also provide the “guarantee” because they adjust their toll rates depending on the amount of traffic on the roads (ranging from 25 cents to $8 in other states); thereby controlling how many drivers will choose to use the lanes.

But the idea remains controversial. Critics such as The Washington Post’s Marc Fisher claim that the lanes, or as they call them “Lexus lanes,” “leave the average Joe in the dust,” arguing that only the rich can afford such a traffic-free luxury. But Ungemah’s latest report cites research that shows that 42 percent of the people who use Orange County’s managed toll lanes earn $60,000 per year or less, reflecting the same income profile as general highway users. Ungemah added, “Just because someone has a low income doesn’t mean that they do not have their own economic value of time.”

While the lanes have been successful in several places, even their supporters, such as Ungemah, realize that they have limits. In areas of high growth, such as Northern Virginia, the number of cars will eventually overtake the capacity of the roadways just as the case is with normal highways. Ungemah said, “Twenty to fifty years down the road, the managed lanes aren’t going to cut it.”

“Just because someone has a low income doesn’t mean that they do not have their own economic value of time.”

However, the success of the HOT lanes may also be mitigated by some of the broader issues facing the nation’s current highway system. Alan Pisarski argues that the changing commuting patterns of American workers may necessitate a more drastic change than managed toll lanes. “The patterns of commuting are now suburb to suburb as opposed to a suburb to urban path. The problem is that the existing infrastructure is not configured to fit this shifting model,” Pisarski said. As people move farther out into suburbs and exurbs, the jobs have moved with them, creating a need for new highways that connect suburbs to each other, and not just the central city. Since managed toll lanes are being established on existing roadways, they may not reach the new breed of commuter.

Despite these limitations, managed toll lanes do provide a reasonable alternative for commuters to bypass much of the congestion that clogs American highways while simultaneously easing the budgetary concerns of state and local governments. However, if policy-makers do not develop additional long term solutions to accommodate the changing patterns of commuting, then American drivers may still end up, “Just in time to stand in line/ With a freeway looking like a parking lot.”

Jordan Fabian is an editorial intern at The American.

Image credit: 'Highland and Sunset' by Flickr user 4x4jeepchick.