DECEMBER 2006 :: COVER STORY : AUTOS

Traffic Alert
Solutions for America's Growing Congestion Problem

By Jennifer Saranow
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

If it seems like traffic is getting worse everywhere you go, you're not imagining it.

The number of cars on the road is rising faster than current highway systems can accommodate and causing more traffic jams-not just in New York and Los Angeles, but in Seattle and Austin, Texas, and dozens of other places.

According to the Texas Transportation Institute's 2005 report on 85 urban areas, commuters in 2003 spent an average of 47 hours of extra time in traffic delays-on top of what their commute would have been at the speed limit-up from 16 hours in 1982 and 40 hours in 1993. And, in all the areas studied, regardless of population size, there was more severe congestion, lasting longer and affecting more roads.

The report predicts that if things continue as they are, with growth in travel outpacing improvement in the transportation system, urban areas will jump to the next congestion-level classification by 2013. This means that midsize regions like Omaha's will have traffic problems that larger areas like Cleveland now have, and larger areas like Cleveland will have the traffic problems that very large areas like New York have now.

The traditional response to congestion has been to build new road capacity. But in many areas of the world, such expansion isn't feasible anymore because of lack of funding, opposition from residents or simply lack of room.

But that doesn't mean you have to look forward to a future of being stuck in traffic. While many transportation planners say more roads must be a part of the congestion solution, they are increasingly focusing on how to make more efficient use of existing roadways. Here's a look at some of the innovative solutions spreading, and on the horizon, for improving traffic flow:

RUBBING OUT RUBBERNECKING Accidents and stalled vehicles breed more congestion. They can block parts of roads as well as cause backups when people slow down to get a good look at what happened. By some estimates, for every minute an incident is on the road, traffic flow takes four minutes to recover.

But a number of transit agencies are starting to focus on "incident management," or getting crashes and stalled vehicles off roads and shoulders as quickly as possible. In Houston, tow trucks from 11 companies, contracted with the city, roam the freeways all day every day. When they spot an incident, they call the city's traffic-management center, where police locate the wreck or stalled vehicle on a freeway camera and authorize the tow-truck driver to move it somewhere off the road.

The program, "SafeClear," which began as a pilot in 2004 and spread citywide in January 2005, shortens the time it takes to detect a disabled vehicle and clear it from the road, cutting delay times. Before SafeClear's inception, police officers had to be dispatched to the scene of an incident to authorize tows.

SafeClear has contributed to a reduction of 730,000 hours in travel-time delays and a 10% drop in the number of collisions for 2005 compared with 2003 and 2004.

Elsewhere, the Washington state Department of Transportation is studying "rubbernecking screens"-fabric walls that block the site of an accident from passing motorists-as a way to reduce delays. The agency is evaluating whether they help ease or add to congestion.

COMMUNICATION Other efforts center on improving communication between cars and roads. Most traffic signals change color based on historical traffic flow at a given intersection, meaning they can't sense if there's a long line of cars leaving a basketball game or shopping center. But increasingly, a number of regions are adopting "adaptive" traffic signals, which change color based on actual traffic flow.

The Road Commission for Oakland County, Mich., near Detroit, added adaptive signals to about 25 intersections over the past year and now has them at 650 of its 1,200 signaled intersections. Camera-like devices at intersections count the number of cars moving in various directions, and signals respond in a way to more efficiently handle the traffic.

Efforts are also under way to enable signals to communicate with cars themselves. In 1999, the Federal Communications Commission set aside radio frequencies for communication between vehicles, and between roads and vehicles, with the goal of preventing crashes and reducing congestion. Information about road and traffic conditions-for instance, if a number of cars suddenly put on their windshield wipers or brakes-could be collected from vehicles as another source of data for what traffic signals should display.

HOT LANES Many transportation agencies increasingly are using pricing to manage demand. For example, many are hoping to shorten rush hour by putting in place "high-occupancy toll" lanes, or "HOT" lanes, where solo drivers can pay electronic tolls to use car-pool lanes. The theory is that some drivers will be willing to pay to move into less-congested lanes.

Colorado has converted some car-pool lanes in Denver to HOT lanes. Last year, a similar lane opened near Minneapolis on I-394, and one runs for eight miles on I-15 near San Diego.

In another example of new pricing twists, a number of cities in Europe have started charging people who want to drive their cars into city centers during weekdays. The goal: to encourage use of public transportation and reduce trip times for those on the roads. London introduced its "congestion toll" in February 2003 and now charges drivers the equivalent of about $14 to drive into the city center from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays.

ALTERNATIVE-TRANSIT BONUS Federal and local governments are trying to encourage employers to help better manage the demand for existing roadways. The idea is that by offering employees incentives to get to work by means other than single-occupant vehicles, employers could help decrease the number of vehicles on the road and possibly increase workers' satisfaction with their commute.

In May 2001, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation launched a program called "Best Workplaces for Commuters" to encourage companies to offer commuter benefits. In addition to gaining the designation of being a "Best Workplace for Commuters," participating companies are ranked based on the incentives they offer.

To qualify, companies must have 15% of their employees commuting to work by a method other than a single-occupant vehicle. Companies also must offer subsidized transit passes and van-pool vouchers, allow telecommuting, and provide methods for rides home during emergencies (cab vouchers, for instance). At the end of 2005, 1,443 employers participated in the program, up from 1,143 at the end of 2004 and 21 during the program's first month in 2001.

Many employers are also making it easier for their employees to find car pools or van pools by encouraging them to sign up for ride-matching Web sites.

QUICK NOTICE FOR DRIVERS By providing drivers with more information about current traffic conditions and alternative routes, transportation agencies hope to encourage people to avoid congested roads, and thus avoid adding to the congestion.

In 2000, the federal government designated 511 as the single traffic-information telephone number for states and local jurisdictions nationwide. According to the Federal Highway Administration, 21 states now have 511 systems in place, with most providing the information via 511 phone numbers and online.

The services generally provide live traffic conditions, maps and travel times-more than just the information about a few incidents provided by traditional radio reports.