Cars…Not So Good

NPR reported today that Boston ranks 6th!  Sixth!   Sadly it isn’t “Awesome Cities”, it was Cities with the highest level of time wasted in traffic.  We didn’t get here by accident.  It was years of decisions, choices we have made about how we built roads, and what sort of traffic we promote.

On top of the 64 hours wasted by the average car driver every year, traffic also causes lots of other problems:

The report finds that traffic congestion caused U.S. drivers to waste more than 3 billion gallons of fuel last year, and exacted a nationwide price tag of $160 billion, when fuel and car costs and lost productivity are added up.

The “congestion cost” per car commuter in the Boston area — a region that includes parts of New Hampshire and Rhode Island — was nearly $1,400 last year, per the report. That’s ninth-highest among U.S. metros.

I have said before, roads are a public utility designed to move people and goods around, the best way to do that is not necessarily by car.  If you are wasting $1400(!!) dollars a year being stuck in traffic its time to re-evaluate your method of transport.

It’s also worth noting, that we used to be a country where cities were full of more and more varied public transportation options, until large car companies got them removed.  Your commute is miserable in large part because a big company wants to make money off your suffering.

Buy a bike, get a t-pass, walk, ride a bus, anything but drive your car.

If only there was

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