Four Traffic Bottlenecks in Los Angeles Area Among Nation's Worst
24 November 1999
Four Traffic Bottlenecks in Los Angeles Area Among Nation's Worst; Study Catalogues Top Congestion Hot Spots; Shows How Improvements Would Save Lives, Slash Air Pollutants and Reduce Travel Time WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 -- As millions of Americans take to the
road for the Thanksgiving holiday, knowing they likely will get stuck in
traffic, a first-of-its-kind study has identified the nation's worst highway
bottlenecks -- four of which in the Los Angeles area top the list -- and their
impacts on crashes, the environment and travel time over the next 20 years.
The San Diego Freeway at the Interstate (I) 10 interchange, the Ventura
Freeway at the I-405 interchange, the Newport Freeway at the Calif. Rt. 22
interchange and the Santa Monica Freeway at the I-5 interchange were listed
among the nation's worst traffic chokepoints where drivers experience delays
practically every day of the week.
"Our overstressed road system needs additional capacity at key points.
Providing that capacity by removing strategic bottlenecks, as part of an
overall program of congestion relief, will reduce the amount of time commuters
have to spend on the road, save hundreds of lives, prevent thousands of
injuries, and help us safeguard the environment," according to Unclogging
America's Arteries: Prescriptions for Healthier Highways. The study was
conducted by veteran transportation research organization Cambridge
Systematics for the American Highway Users Alliance.
In addition to naming the four Los Angeles-area bottlenecks among the
nation's worst, the study found that over 20 years improvements to the
congested interchanges would yield tremendous benefits:
* San Diego Freeway at I-10 -- 4,560 fewer crashes, including 18
fatalities and 2,240 injuries; reductions in carbon monoxide by 33 percent,
smog-causing volatile organic compounds (VOC) by 33 percent, nitrogen oxides
by eight percent and carbon dioxide-a greenhouse gas-by 53 percent; a 15-
minute reduction in delays per trip
* Ventura Freeway at I-405 -- 5,230 fewer crashes, including 21
fatalities and 2,570 injuries; reductions in carbon monoxide and VOC by 42
percent and carbon dioxide by 69 percent, while nitrogen oxides would increase
slightly by one percent; a 17-minute reduction in delays per trip
* Newport Freeway at Calif. Rt. 22 -- 5,600 fewer crashes, including
22 fatalities and 2,750 injuries; reductions in carbon monoxide and VOC by 51
percent, nitrogen oxides by seven percent and carbon dioxide by 74 percent; a
26-minute reduction in delays per trip
* Santa Monica Freeway at I-5 -- 4,865 fewer crashes, including 19
fatalities and 2,400 injuries; reductions in carbon monoxide and VOC by 37
percent and carbon dioxide by 65 percent, while nitrogen oxides would increase
slightly by less than three percent; a 13-minute reduction in delays per trip
"Traffic congestion has become a major problem on many of our highways,
and it's occurring at predictably overcrowded spots-bottlenecks," said William
D. Fay, president and CEO of the American Highway Users Alliance. "Freeing
these bottlenecks is a critical starting point for curing the gridlock on our
roadways."
The study pinpointed the nation's top 18 bottlenecks, which are located in
nine metropolitan areas: Albuquerque, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver,
Houston, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Washington, DC. Analytic modeling methods
were used to project the impact of improvements, finding significant gains in
safety, air quality and travel time at each site over the 20-year life of the
improvements, despite additional delays during construction. Actual
improvements guided the analysis at bottlenecks where specific congestion
fixes are already underway or being planned, while bottlenecks where such
repairs and remedies are under consideration were analyzed conservatively
based on improvements that would bring traffic flow to a minimum acceptable
level.
Unclogging America's Arteries found that fixing nearly 170 traffic
bottlenecks nationwide will, over the 20-year life of the improvements:
* Prevent almost 290,000 crashes, involving 1,150 fatalities and
141,000 injuries;
* Nearly halve pollution at the bottlenecks, reducing carbon monoxide
by 45 percent and VOC by 44 percent (while nitrogen oxides will increase
slightly by six percent);
* Cut carbon dioxide emissions by 71 percent; and
* Reduce delays by an average of 19 minutes per trip -- nearly 40
minutes per day for commuters who must negotiate a bottleneck in both morning
and evening rush hours.
"While past experience shows that no single strategy can adequately
address the problems of metropolitan congestion, the good news is that there
are effective solutions .... A balanced, comprehensive approach to traffic
congestion that uses all the tools at our disposal can lessen the stifling
gridlock found on many of our highways," the study said, citing transit, high-
tech traffic management systems, reversible commuter lanes and moveable
barriers, as well as additional road capacity.
"What the study tells us is--there's hope," said Fay. "Eliminating
specific chokepoints on our major highways would bring enormous relief to
frustrated drivers. For the sake of public safety, an improved environment
and a better overall quality of life, it's an investment worth making."
Note: Unclogging America's Arteries is available in its entirety on the
web at http://www.highways.org.
The American Highway Users Alliance -- a nonprofit advocacy organization
whose membership includes more than 200 national trade associations,
corporations, small businesses and state and local nonprofit organizations
that represent more than 45 million highway users in the United States -- has
been serving since 1932 as the united voice of the transportation community on
highway safety and mobility.
