We have congestion and we want more cars to make it worse?
Bumper-to-bumper traffic is America’s collective nightmare, and like the movie Groundhog Day it repeats on a daily basis.
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Yet over 100 million automobile commuters each day feel like they have little option. “We put so much of our national wealth and our identity into the whole motoring thing,” says James Howard Kunstler, author of Geography of Nowhere, “that we can’t imagine doing something different.”
Anthony Downs, author of Stuck in Traffic has identified four reasons for America’s congestion problem, also applicable to most European and Asian economies: first, most of us work during the same hours of the day; second, the country’s economic success has allowed households to buy multiple cars; third, there are more people now than when most roadways were conceived; fourth, more cars means more accidents which means more delays. [Note: cyclists are not the problem here, its too many cars.]
In other words, this problem isn’t going anywhere. So the Daily Beast set out to figure out the worst of the worst.
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#21, Baltimore Beltway, surrounds Baltimore
Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 152
Worst bottleneck: Southbound, I 70/Exit 16
Length of worst bottleneck: .46 mi
Weekly hours of congestion on worst bottleneck: 13
Speed of worst bottleneck when congested: 24.3 mph
[If my math is right going from 60mph down to 24.3mph for .46 of a mile is a delay of 40 seconds for the individual. OMG How can people live with such conditions? :p Anyway if you want to avoid the frustration... bike, it's fun, good for you and it makes it easier on those that drive. It's a win win solution.]