In the context of hundreds of billion dollars annually and trillions per decade, not to mention the cumulative cost to the national psyche of aggravation and boredom, a project cost of billions to reduce congestion in our nation’s capital suddenly looks entirely reasonable, more like good governance and a prudent investment than a boondoggle.Īnd it helps make sense of the eye-popping numbers that come up early when one considers the “Transform 66 Outside the Beltway” Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) project, a dramatic transformation of 22.5 miles of I-66 feeding into the famous beltway that surrounds and virtually defines the federal government. Americans will waste $2.8 trillion on traffic by 2030 if gridlock persists-the same amount Americans collectively paid in U.S.Without significant action to alleviate congestion, this cost is expected to increase 50 percent to $186 billion by 2030. Traffic is more detrimental to our wallets than our patience-in 2013, traffic congestion robbed the U.S.In addition to lost time, negative externalities such as freight delay, inflationary pressure and environmental impact are generally exacerbated due to traffic congestion.As vehicular traffic builds, drivers, freight movers and bus riders lose time and spend fuel unproductively. Traffic congestion occurs when demand for roadway travel exceeds the supply of roadways.In reports such as “2022 Global Traffic Scorecard,” INRIX (a private company that provides location-based traffic data to agencies and businesses such as Google Waze and publishes research reports on traffic congestion) makes the following points:

It’s a well-studied fact that congestion doesn’t just exact a daily toll of hours of anxiety and boredom from the individual psyche, it also measurably costs civilizations (and individuals) money-lots of money. The area has some of the worst (and most publicized) traffic congestion in the United States, with up to 200,000 vehicles on the roadway each day experiencing eight to 10 hours of daily congestion … just on the 76.38 miles of Virginia’s Interstate 66 (I-66). In the Washington, D.C., metro area, “gridlock” is more than a political metaphor, it’s a daily fact of life for hundreds of thousands of commuters. Angus Stocking on Main Articles, Feature, FeaturedĪt any time during the construction seasons of 20, commuters might be traveling through 22.5 miles of continuous construction

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