Flawed TTI Report Ignores Causes and the More Cost Effective Solutions to Congestion
COALITION FOR SMARTER GROWTH
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
January 20, 2011
Contact:
Stewart Schwartz, CSG, 703-599-6437 (cell)
Flawed TTI Report Ignores Causes and the More Cost Effective Solutions to Congestion
DC Region’s Own Reports Call for Smart Growth and Transit-Oriented Solutions
The annual Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) now ranks the Washington, D.C. region number 1 in congestion. “That we are congested is not news, but TTI’s report does tremendous damage, because they fail to recognize the primary cause of our congestion and imply that we could simply widen roads to build our way out of the problem,” said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.
TTI’s analysis has once again been strongly challenged by CEOs for Cities, which released an extensive critique in October, entitled Driven Apart. In a statement today (PDF), CEOs says TTI “continues to present an exaggerated and incorrect picture of the extent and causes of urban transportation problems and their solutions and fails to recognize the major contribution land use makes to time spent in traffic.”
Among CEOs’ specific critiques is that TTI “continues to rely on the Travel Time Index, which is built on the unrealistic baseline assumption that travel times should (and could) be no longer during peak periods as during non?peak periods and obscures the effect of land use patterns in creating longer travel distances.”
“Travel time, not some unachievable peak hour speed, is what matters to people – not speed,” said Schwartz, “We can neither afford the extensive road widening TTI implies would be needed and it would reignite sprawling patterns of development adding to long commutes and traffic.”
CEOs states: “Sprawling development, not traffic delays is the principal source of variations in travel time differences among metropolitan areas.” Under this standard a number of other regions face much longer commutes in peak hour congestion than do commuters in the DC region.
“TTI’s report fails to note the positive results the DC region has achieved through its use of transit, transit-oriented development and HOV options, which offer a large proportion of our residents the option to avoid congestion,” said Schwartz. “Moreover, our Council of Governments’ own analysis shows that the best approach for our future growth is network of transit-oriented, walkable/bikeable, mixed-use, mixed-income communities – what the Council of Governments is calling ‘Complete Communities’.”
COG’s “What Would it Take?” (PDF) scenario and the land use portion of the “Aspirations” (PDF) scenario used two separate modeling techniques to show that these transit-oriented centers would do a better job by reducing the amount we have to drive, placing jobs and housing closer together, and making walking, biking and transit more effective options. In contrast, a scenario involving $52 billion and a 1,650 mile network of HOT lanes (high-occupancy toll lanes), failed to adequately address future congestion and the amount of driving faced by the region’s commuters.
“Our nation is broke – we cannot afford to try to build out way out of congestion. TTI’s report will do tremendous damage if it reinforces the current proposals by Virginia and Maryland to simply throw more money at the problem. We need fundamental reform in our approach and it starts with better land use and community designs that reduce the amount and distance people have to drive, and linking transit and development,” concluded Schwartz.
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