ATI The Alliance for Traffic Improvement

Seeking cost effective ways to reduce traffic congestion on Oahu

 Myth #4 — “Rail transit will reduce traffic congestion.”

The recognized national authority on traffic congestion is the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) at Texas A & M University. They issue a report annually on the changes of traffic congestion in the nation’s 75 largest metro areas. Read Texas Transportation Institute study

Their latest annual report on traffic congestion nationally divided the nation’s metro area’s into four population size categories SEE LIST as follows:

·         · In the ‘Very Large’ category of over 3 million in population, there were 11 metro areas, all of which had rail lines — except Houston and it had the least increase in traffic congestion in this group.

·         · In the ‘Large’ category of 1 to 3 million in population, there were 27 metro areas of which half had rail lines. Excepting the stable or shrinking metro areas of Cleveland, New Orleans, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh, the best performing metro areas for traffic congestion were Milwaukee, Norfolk, Kansas City, and Oklahoma City — and none of these had rail.

·         · In the ‘Medium’ category of half a million to one million population there were 30 metro areas, which included Honolulu, and of these, only Salt Lake City, which is 50 percent larger than us, had a rail line (a real ‘light’ rail line), and they had the third worst showing in traffic congestion increases.

·         · In the 'Small' category of less than half a million, there were no metro areas with rail lines.

TTI’s latest annual tracking report on traffic congestion said that the nation would have to expand transit system ridership by 33 percent each year to maintain congestion levels and they added, quote, “It may be very difficult to convince this many persons to begin riding transit.” READ THEIR FULL STATEMENT