We're No. 1! That joyful chant typically follows winning a tough competition. But in this case it refers to the time wasted on the roads around the Washington area.
The latest study by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and INRIX Inc. found that commuters in the region face the longest delays of any metropolitan area in the nation — ahead of Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. No real surprise here because in 2011, Washington was first in the nation in terms of suffering from the worst traffic congestion from coast to coast.
The study released Tuesday puts numbers on just how bad it is. Area drivers spend an annual average of 82 hours — more than two work weeks — just to get to and from their jobs. The out-of-pocket costs per auto commuter have increased to $1,834 per year and the typical driver wastes 35 gallons of gasoline sitting in traffic each year.
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Though the study doesn’t address the Fredericksburg area specifically, drivers and businesses here aren’t immune to the rising costs of congestion streaming down the Interstate 95 corridor. In fact, speakers at a recent transportation summit sponsored by the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce spoke bluntly about the costs of having roads filled beyond capacity.
For example, one businessman pointed out that if his employees can only do five calls per day instead of seven or eight because of traffic, the cost is passed on to the customers they can get to. Delivery companies whose trucks sit in traffic also pass higher costs along to consumers.
Then, there’s the loss of business when local customers decide it’s just not worth it to venture out into the traffic or when tourists to the region’s historic sites, shops and restaurants just can’t reach their destination because of I–95 gridlock.
The message is becoming increasingly clear that the years of Congress’ failure to pass a long-term transportation bill and tax revenues to pay for significant improvements haven’t saved people money. Congestion has become a hidden tax on our economic well-being.
Charles G. McDaniel, longtime Fredericksburg businessman and chairman of Hilldrup Moving & Storage headquartered in North Stafford, urged area chamber members to press Congress to pass a meaningful transportation bill with a dedicated revenue stream. He called an increase in the gas tax the fairest way to go. For a business that puts 50 trucks on the road each day, that’s a significant stance.
Congress has failed to approve a long-term transportation bill in 34 attempts since 2009. Lawmakers have been unwilling to raise the federal gas tax, which has remained at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993, or find another revenue stream they can agree upon.
The House and Senate will have to try again once lawmakers return from vacation in September. The short-term transportation bill they passed in late July will expire at the end of October. The measure keeps federal dollars flowing to ongoing projects, but, as Virginia Highway Commissioner Charlie Kilpatrick has said, the amount of federal support for improvements in Virginia has been uncertain and flat at best. Political gridlock is not why most voters send people to Congress, but that’s what we’ve been getting. And it’s clearly spilled over onto the nation’s infrastructure.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R–Kentucky, speaking to a Rotary Club in Ohio on Monday, declared that the “era of dysfunction in the Senate is over.”
We’ll see about that. And we hope that the significant differences with the House over how to pay for transportation will be ironed out before the next short-term bill expires. It’s time for our leaders in Washington to set a long-term course for transportation investments that will boost the economy and improve our ability to get around.