St. Louis congestion on the decline

By Elisa Crouch ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Thursday, Jul. 09 2009

Commuters on Interstate 270 might not believe it, but congestion headaches in
the St. Louis area are improving, not getting worse.

The average driver in the St. Louis area spends a little more than a day per
year stuck in traffic, compared with a day and half in 1997, according to the
2009 Urban Mobility Report issued Wednesday.

And while the report is based on 2007 data — before the shutdown of Highway 40
(Interstate 64) — research by a firm hired by the Missouri Department of
Transportation still supports the conclusion: Closing the highway hasn't
seriously clogged our roads.

"It has not really been that significant," said Tom Ryan, senior traffic
engineer for the firm studying effects of the shutdown.

The Urban Mobility Report — along with local planners and highway officials —
cites a number of reasons for the decline in commute times. They point to an
aging work force, high gas prices, recession, more use of mass transit and the
impact of traffic management techniques such as coordinated traffic signals.

St. Louis stacks up favorably against other metro areas.

Drivers in Los Angeles face the worst gridlock, spending almost three days of
the year in delays. The other most-clogged cities in the United States are
Washington, Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco and Dallas.

Still, for the first time, the report shows decreased congestion in most urban
areas, reflecting the rising gasoline prices and the economic downturn that
began in the last half of 2007.

And while the national dip in traffic congestion is expected to reverse once
the economy rebounds, researchers at the Texas Transportation Institute say,
St. Louis could be a different story.

"When you look at St. Louis, you see over the last 10 years or so the numbers
have been slowly dropping," said David Schrank, co-author of the report. "It
hasn't happened overnight."

Overall, the amount of time area motorists spend in delays on the region's
highways, major and minor roads is lower than in 45 other cities, ranging from
Indianapolis to Virginia Beach, Va., to Orlando to Phoenix.

Still, St. Louis-area motorists from Illinois and Missouri spent a combined 33
million hours in traffic, wasted 21 million gallons of fuel and doled out $697
million because of congestion.

Though bottlenecks on I-270 and Forest Park Parkway can be as bad as choke
points in the most congested cities, lighter traffic elsewhere in the region
improved the traffic picture, Schrank said.

The reasons for improvements vary. The region's aging population and shrinking
household size have played a role in the leveling off of traffic congestion,
according to a 2008 report by East-West Gateway Council of Governments.

"It's also a lack of economic vigor in the area," said Les Sterman, executive
director of Gateway, the metropolitan planning organization. The St. Louis area
isn't attracting as many young people as cities like Austin and Chicago. And,
"as people get older, (they) don't drive as much."

The study also shows a rising use of public transportation in the St. Louis
area. Eliminating the transit system altogether would add more cars to the
road, costing the average driver an extra two hours a year, the report shows.

Next year's report will reflect delays from Highway 40 construction. The
closures, which began in January 2008, have sent more cars to other interstates
and arterials.

HDR Inc., the engineering company studying the impact of the Highway 40
closure, has seen some additional congestion and delays on routes such as
Interstates 44 and 70, Clayton Road, Manchester Road, Forest Park Parkway and
Olive Boulevard, Ryan said.

Congestion has not reached the level that many had feared. Travel demand in
some corridors could be down because of gasoline prices in 2008 and the
recession, Ryan said. "It was not only the influence of what construction did,
but the counterinfluence of what the economy and gas prices did," he said.

To compile the Urban Mobility Report, researchers at the Texas Transportation
Institute collected data from federal and state sources, including traffic
volumes, vehicle miles, travel times and gasoline costs.

Researchers did not explore all traffic management measures that may ease
congestion.

To prepare roads for the Highway 40 closure, for example, St. Louis County, St.
Louis and MoDOT spent 2007 coordinating traffic signals on the region's busiest
roads, which has alleviated congestion. The Motorist Assist program worked to
remove stalled cars from interstates, and the program was expanded to other
major roads. Digital message boards on interstates began giving advance warning
of wrecks to help drivers get around backups.

"We were headed down a path prior to I-64 work where more and more of our
resources were geared toward operating the system we have and trying to get the
best travel times out of what we have," said Tom Blair, MoDOT's assistant
district engineer.

Though traffic congestion has improved recently, area motorists spend twice as
much time in delays than they did 20 years ago, the report shows.

Whether drivers have noticed depends on their own commute.

"One motorist might tell you, 'Yeah, I've seen a little difference,'" Schrank
said. "And another motorist may say, 'Absolutely not.'"