Free Republic

Time is money, and a new report shows just how much time and money American's are wasting sitting in their cars and trucks. The total last year was $87 billion, or $1,348 per driver, according to new data analyzed by research firm INRIX. Each year, INRIX issues a Global Traffic Scorecard based on millions of pieces of data from connected vehicles, departments of transportation, cellular positioning reports and a number of other sources. The picture they paint of congestion in the U.S. in 2018 is not pretty, especially when it comes to the excess amount of time we spend behind...

Everyone in America was planning for the solar eclipse on August 21, except, apparently, the Montana Department of Transportation. That day, a contractor hired by MDT had scheduled a fairly major road construction project to begin on Interstate 15 near the Clark Canyon Dam. As tens of thousands of people headed north from the path of the eclipse to get home Monday around 4:30 p.m., they encountered a miles-long traffic jam that slowed traffic to a bumper-to-bumper crawl for more than an hour for some drivers. The flow of traffic was not a problem on the northbound lane of I-15...

Two former cronies of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were sentenced to prison Wednesday for the politically motivated closure of traffic lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge that has come to be known as “Bridgegate.” Former Port Authority exec Bill Baroni was sentenced to two years in ​prison​ and ex-Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly to 18 months behind bars by a federal judge in Newark.

If these motorists thought setting off early would help them beat the Thanksgiving getaway rush, it appears a few others had the same idea. ABC7 Eyewitness News captured incredible footage of what might just be the world’s worst car jam in southern California, bringing traffic to a crawl.

50-lane highway resembled car parkVehicles are seen stuck in a traffic jam near a toll station as people return home at the end of a week-long national day holiday, in Beijing, China. (Reuters) You might never complain about the morning rush hour again in your life after you see how thousands of cars in China were brought to an absolute halt at a toll booth in an epic traffic jam. As many as 50-lane highway resembled a huge car park when almost half of China's 1.3 billion people returned to work after the National Day holiday, reports 9news.com.au. After the...

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (KRON) — A recently formed music group in Virginia Beach seized the opportunity to play in front of a stadium sized audience, and it was all for a great cause.Members of the Hot Gumbo Brass Band decided to perform a mini-concert for frustrated drivers and passengers after traffic came to a standstill on Interstate 264 while police worked to clear the scene of an accident, Saturday night.Many viewers asked 10 On Your Side about a big backup on I-264. Dispatchers told WAVY.com a two-vehicle crash shut down the westbound lanes of the highway at Rosemont Road around...

.....Obama is coming to the city today to raise money for the Democratic party. The president is expected to arrive at JFK Airport around 1:30 p.m. From there he will head to Manhattan for two events involving the Democratic National Committee.

One unmentioned irony of the Chris Christie road-revenge scandal is that the powers-that-be finally found a traffic jam they didn't like. Now, don't get me wrong, having always lived in the NY metropolitan area and often having wanted to split a vein while in the midst of the NY/NJ road experience, I think that anyone who purposely exacerbates traffic problems should be confined to a small cell and forced to listen 24/7/365 to Nancy Pelosi's nails-on-blackboard speeches. But I have to tell you: it has always seemed that NY and NJ public officials have utter disregard - if not contempt...

Six New Jersey residents have filed a federal lawsuit against Governor Chris Christie, the state of New Jersey, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and others over traffic jams in September that made them 'late for work.' The suit filed in federal court Thursday appears to be the first civil claim over traffic jams that appear to have been caused as political punishment for the Fort Lee mayor. The plaintiffs want it certified as a class action.

HUAIAN COUNTY, CHINA—So you think struggling home from Ontario’s cottage country was tough? Think again. And consider, if you will, the case of Chinese trucker Pang Laisuo. On Sunday his coal-laden transport truck was caught in a traffic jam near here, about 240 kilometres north of Beijing. Pang knew he’d have something of a wait. What he didn’t know was that it would last 18 hours. “Everyone who pulled up at 4 o’clock Sunday afternoon ended up being stuck there until 10 o’clock Monday morning,” says Pang, a lean and grizzled man in his 50s speaking at a roadside stop...

...Triggered by road construction, the snarl-up began 10 days ago and was 100 kilometers (60 miles) long at one point. Reaching almost to the outskirts of Beijing, traffic still creeps along in fits and starts, and the crisis could last for another three weeks, authorities say.

MAINTENANCE work, wrecks and broken down cars caused a nine-day traffic jam in China that stretched for more than 100 kilometres, Chinese daily newspaper The Global Times reported. The traffic jam, on the Beijing-Tibet Expressway between Beijing and Huai'an, began on August 14 when thousands of Beijing-bound coal and fruit trucks jammed the roadway. A major cause of the congestion was maintenance work on the nearby National Expressway 110, which had suffered damage from heavy vehicles. The roadworks work forced drivers to use the Beijing-Tibet Expressway instead. Coupled with several minor accidents and broken down cars, traffic has now been...

BETHESDA, Md. - When candidates are vying for votes it can be hard to get them to agree on issues. But WTOP managed to get all the major candidates in the Maryland governor's race to make the same pledge: Not to distract drivers by waving campaign signs at them. This pledge comes after political volunteers created 10 miles of delays on Interstate 270 last week by waving signs from the Falls Road overpass. Some drivers were furious about the delays. Others believe roadside distractions of any kind are a hazard that can cause crashes. "We would never condone stopping traffic."...

Late Sunday night, my wife and I drove from Sacramento, Calif., to Los Angeles. We figured that it would be wise to leave Sacramento in the early evening to avoid traffic. At 7 p.m., we climbed into the car and headed for Interstate 5, the major highway connecting Northern California and Southern California. For the first five hours of the drive, things went as planned. The highway was relatively clear, and we sailed along happily at 80 mph. Then we saw it. A sign. A large orange sign reading: Freeway Closed Ahead, 11 p.m.-4 a.m. It was too late to...

Traffic jam mystery solved by mathematicians Mathematicians from the University of Exeter have solved the mystery of traffic jams by developing a model to show how major delays occur on our roads, with no apparent cause. Many traffic jams leave drivers baffled as they finally reach the end of a tail-back to find no visible cause for their delay. Now, a team of mathematicians from the Universities of Exeter, Bristol and Budapest, have found the answer and published their findings in leading academic journal Proceedings of the Royal Society. The team developed a mathematical model to show the impact...

Critical Mass, the loosely organized bicycle group that ties up rush-hour traffic once a month in Minneapolis, has demonstrated who rules our streets. But Minneapolis isn't the only place where the Mass mob has strong-armed the police and City Hall, and left outraged motorists fuming but impotent. Today, Critical Mass cyclists cow commuters in more than 300 cities, from Denver to Rio de Janeiro, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The ride got its start in San Francisco (where else?) in 1992 with about 50 cyclists. Authorities there looked the other way as riders ran red lights and snarled traffic....

'Office Space" opened in theaters in February 1999 and pulled in roughly $4.2 million in its first weekend. By May of that year, its total theatrical gross had crawled to about $10.8 million. For perspective's sake, consider that two weekends ago, "The Fog" opened - opened, do you hear - with $14.2 million. Of course, any movie tempts lackluster receipts when it opens in the dead of winter with no big-name stars except Jennifer Aniston - regarded back then as a small-screen fixture, with no Brad Pitt in her immediate vicinity.But I, at least, expected better initial results. When reviewing...

Running out of time Fear meets frustration as Texans attempt to flee from Rita Washington Post Posted: Sept. 22, 2005 -snip- Houston's mayor acknowledged that the pre-hurricane evacuation preparations, which some Texas officials had been boasting about earlier this week, had gone awry, in part, because too many people attempted to flee the city at once. White said he had been imploring federal and state official since early Thursday to reverse traffic flow on the inbound lanes but that it had begun to occur only by mid-afternoon. "I would say there will be some learning experiences," he said. -snip- There...

SAN FRANCISCO - Commuters are used to traffic backups during the rush-hour commute on the Golden Gate Bridge. But even this had to throw some of them for a loop: An ostrich got loose from a minivan Monday and started roaming around near the toll plaza on the bridge. Ron Love, the owner of Love Farms, was transporting two of the odd-looking birds in the back of his van. Love was stopped in traffic when he suddenly accelerated, jolting one of the ostriches, who smashed through the back window of the van and got loose on the bridge. The ostrich...