Seattle Metropolitan area ranks among best in
U.S. for using transit to fight congestion

The Seattle metro area may be losing ground in its fight to cut traffic congestion, but the nation’s latest transportation report card shows a silver lining. Thanks to wise regional transit investments, residents in the region are spared an additional 33 million hours of traffic delay every year. In fact, the Urban Mobility Report, released today by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), ranks the Seattle metropolitan area eighth in the nation in overall congestion savings due to effective transit.

“This latest annual report concludes that transit is directly responsible for saving this region more than $566 million in annual congestion costs,” King County Executive Ron Sims said. “That’s an astounding figure that just about equals the cost of operating bus service in the three-county metro area. This assessment confirms that King County Metro Transit and other transit agencies are successfully targeting their investments in a way that is producing huge benefits for commuters. No other region of comparable size in the nation has realized that level of transit benefit. ” 

Nationwide, the study found that the average annual delay per traveler climbed from 16 hours in 1982 to 47 hours in 2003. Without public transportation, travel delays would have increased by 27 percent to 60 hours per traveler.

The TTI report card also shows traffic delay in this region was on the rise again in 2003. In fact, the Seattle metro area’s “travel time index” measuring peak commute times rose to 12th worst in the nation in 2003, up a notch from the previous year. This increase was likely influenced by an improving economy and employment rate coupled with the region’s continued inability to keep pace with necessary transportation investment. Overall, peak hour travelers in the three-county area spent an average of 46 hours stuck in traffic.

On a positive note, the report does continue to recognize the value of operational tools such as incident management, signal synchronization and freeway ramp metering as highly effective in putting the brakes on traffic congestion.
 

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