Hate the morning commute, lack of jobs? More jobs means more traffic congestion

Traffic

Nobody likes a downtrodden economy, but there is one perk; less people going to work has meant less cars on the road, and thus less traffic and congestion. That is going to be changing soon however, as the economy picks up and people return to work.

“There’s a real chance that congestion is going to get much worse, very fast,” said David Schrank, a researcher and co-author of the survey. “Already, 2009 was an up tick from 2008 when 4.62 billion hours were wasted.”

One of the biggest culprits here is the fact that highway infrastructure construction is fast outpaced by car travel. Since 1990, there has been a 54% jump in car travel in large metro areas, but only a 36% increase in roadway capacity.

Chicago and DC came in as the worst cities for auto traffic congestion, with LA and Houston coming in at third and fourth, respectively. San Francisco, Dallas, Boston, Denver, Atlanta, and Seattle rounded out the top 10.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: CNNMoney