Posted on 09/07/2004 7:43:35 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
It's a Bumper-To-Bumper Life...
Tue Sep 7, 2:21 PM ET Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo!
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The average U.S. motorist spends 46 hours each year or nearly two full days stuck in rush-hour traffic jams.
An annual report on Tuesday by the transportation institute at Texas A&M University found Los Angeles to be the worst U.S. city for congestion, based on 2002 federal and state highway data.
The average motorist spent 93 hours sitting in peak-hour traffic in Los Angeles compared with, 67 hours in Washington and 50 hours in New York City.
Traffic delays have more than doubled since the early 1980s as more vehicles have packed an aging highway system in large and fast-growing metropolitan areas.
Motorists wasted 5.7 billion gallons of fuel idling in traffic, the study showed.
The annual financial cost of traffic congestion as measured in wasted fuel and lost productivity is estimated at more than $63 billion, compared to $14 billion two decades ago.
The average cost per motorist was $829 per year, up slightly from 2001.
10 or 12 years ago Austin had no traffic. Now it's a mess.
Damn this traffic jam, how I hate to be late, it hurts my motor to go so slow.
Damn this traffic jam, time I get home my supper'll be cold, damn this traffic jam.
Well I left my job about 5 o'clock, it took fifteen minutes go three blocks,
Just in time to stand in line with a freeway looking like a parking lot.
Damn this traffic jam, how I hate to be late, it hurts my motor to go so slow. Damn this traffic jam, time I get home my supper'll be cold, damn this traffic jam.
Now I almost had a heart attack, looking in my rear view mirror,
I saw myself the next car back, looking in the rear view mirror,
about to have a heart attack, I said,
damn this traffic jam, how I hate to be late, it hurts my motor to go so slow.
Damn this traffic jam, time I get home my supper'll be cold, damn this traffic jam.
Now when I die I don't want no coffin, I thought about it all too often.
Just strap me in behind the wheel and bury me with my automobile.
Damn this traffic jam, how I hate to be late, it hurts my motor to go so slow.
Damn this traffic jam, time I get home my supper'll be cold, damn this traffic jam. Damn.
Now I used to think that I was cool running around on fossil fuel,
Until I saw what I was doing was driving down the road to ruin.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.