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Got Gas? (Ten Worst Cites for Commuters)
Climate & Weather (Lifewire) ^ | 2 September 2008 | Nancy Fonti

Posted on 09/02/2008 6:49:33 AM PDT by Vigilanteman

Got Gas?


You'll need it for the 10 worst commutes in the U.S.

(LifeWire) - Lost time and endless aggravation are two of the

biggest drawbacks of a grueling commute by car. But gridlock on

the way to work also harms the environment by pumping extra

pollution into the air and wasting precious fuel.

How wasteful and time-consuming a commute becomes depends in part

on how slowly traffic moves and how long it is stalled, says

David Schrank, an associate research scientist at the Texas

Transportation Institute, part of Texas A&M University in College

Station.

Things start to get inefficient only when highway traffic begins

to bog down, he says. "You're not wasting fuel until you drop

below 60 mph, but when you get to stop-and-go traffic, you're

really wasting fuel as you accelerate and decelerate."

Schrank is part of the team that conducted the institute's latest

annual Urban Mobility Study, examining the fuel (and time)

commuters waste because of congestion. The study, based on 2005

data (the most recent available), measures how many hours and

gallons of fuel are wasted per individual commuter˜whether that

commuter is traveling by car, rail, bus or other form of

motorized transportation˜during peak commute times.

Overall, traffic congestion costs the U.S. economy $78 billion a

year, wasting 2.9 billion gallons of fuel and robbing commuters

of 4.2 billion hours, the study found. Here are the top 10 most

wasteful cities in the country for commuters, based on fuel

usage, according to the institute:

(Excerpt) Read more at climate.weather.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: congestion; energy; environment; freedomoftravel; gas; gasprices; personalliberty; propertyrights; smartgrowth; starkravingsocialism; topten; traffic; transportation; worst
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To: Vigilanteman

At a quick glance it looks like the same list for gun control and top gang violence and top murder capitals.


21 posted on 09/02/2008 7:21:17 AM PDT by mountainlion (concerned conservative.)
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To: Vigilanteman

DC should be #2, it has been for the last several decades.


22 posted on 09/02/2008 7:24:08 AM PDT by Clint N. Suhks (For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my McCain! GO HOCKEY MOMS!)
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To: bboop
Oh RIGHT, like you would EVER take a bus in Los Angeles. Best to walk.

L.A. isn't designed for walking -- everything's too spread out. But you're right about the L.A. buses -- avoid them if at all possible. Last time I took the bus (in the late 70s) I was just too young to drive.

23 posted on 09/02/2008 7:25:00 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo (Obama wants to raise taxes and kill babies; Palin wants to raise babies and kill taxes)
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To: Vigilanteman

WE’ RE NUMBER FIVE!!


24 posted on 09/02/2008 7:25:29 AM PDT by bmwcyle (Vote McWhatshisname and PALIN)
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To: RainMan

The problem with CONGESTION (not distance) making Houston a bad commute is that it is in “the system” by design. Our anal retentive City Counil/mayor power structure serves the downtown business alliance.

They want to discourage commuting and deliberately logjam the I-10 corridor (which serves transnational traffic going THROUGH town, besides just the commuters and local industrial/delivery traffic). Chris Bell (city council, mayoral candidate, congress critter who lodged the complaint against Tom DeLay...) said as much in an interview that those living “outside the (610) loop” should not be encouranged to live in outlying areas or to even come into town to enjoy the nightlife. Of course the city will still ANNEX outlying areas for the tax $$$, just don’t expect city services.

Our tollroad loop (Beltway 8) has a feeder street system around most of the loop. But the traffic lights are deliberately out of phase to encourage riding the pay road. Increasing congestion and pollution.

And at night there are a number of “inner loop” traffic lights that are red in one direction for 4-8 minutes after 10pm. Again such civil engineering (not present in the daytime cycling) are COUNTER to keeping traffic moving.


25 posted on 09/02/2008 7:27:41 AM PDT by weegee (The higher taxes that Obama demands of Americans are 'Above my Pay Grade'.)
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To: ottbmare
DC is definitely #2. It was #1 a couple years ago for a brief stint.
26 posted on 09/02/2008 7:28:13 AM PDT by Clint N. Suhks (For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my McCain! GO HOCKEY MOMS!)
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To: Mr. Mojo
20 years of the Sepulveda Impasse commuting from Santa Clarita to Brentwood finally ground me down.

I changed my hours from 6:30am until 3pm, and even that didn't help much. The I-5 and 405 are nearly as plugged at 5:30am as 7:30.

Eventually, I just "retired" and moved out here to the desert in '02 and haven't been back since.

27 posted on 09/02/2008 7:29:21 AM PDT by ErnBatavia (...forward this to your 10 very best friends....)
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To: bmwcyle

Dang BMWcycle, I thought we would be #2 —especially after today’s commute with all the government showing up because September is fiscal year close, and all the children in VA going back to school today —


28 posted on 09/02/2008 7:29:45 AM PDT by duckbutt (Those who pay no taxes have no check on their appetite for services.)
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To: Vigilanteman

we made the top 10 again!!!! Tops in murders, drugs, violent crime, non violent crime, welfare recipients, overweight people and top 10 in traffic congestion....GO DETROIT!!!!


29 posted on 09/02/2008 7:31:12 AM PDT by joe fonebone (The Second Amendment is the Constitutions reset button)
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To: ErnBatavia

Santa Clarita to Brentwood as a daily commute sounds rough. Good move getting out there to the desert.


30 posted on 09/02/2008 7:42:48 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo (Obama wants to raise taxes and kill babies; Palin wants to raise babies and kill taxes)
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To: joe fonebone

Yeah but where do you stand in corruption in government?


31 posted on 09/02/2008 7:42:50 AM PDT by weegee (The higher taxes that Obama demands of Americans are 'Above my Pay Grade'.)
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To: Vigilanteman

I traveled from Mississippi to New York in July and the area around Louisville, KY was about 25 cents higher than all the other areas I passed through.


32 posted on 09/02/2008 7:56:27 AM PDT by trebb ("I am the way... no one comes to the Father, but by me..." - Jesus in John 14:6 (RSV))
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To: weegee

we make the folks in washington breathe a sigh of relief....


33 posted on 09/02/2008 7:57:41 AM PDT by joe fonebone (The Second Amendment is the Constitutions reset button)
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To: proudpapa
The only traffic jam there is people with their Uhauls tring to get the hell out.
Somehow they missed liberal cess pool, Seattle.

I was thinking the same about Detroit. Why in the world would there be traffic there?

I did 5 years in Seattle Worse traffic I've ever seen.

34 posted on 09/02/2008 8:03:36 AM PDT by radiohead (Palin - conservative, female, mom, NRA member - good enough for me.)
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To: Vigilanteman
Want to cut back on congestion? Cut back on HOV lanes... another failed liberal initiative with unintended consequences.


35 posted on 09/02/2008 8:13:01 AM PDT by Entrepreneur (The environmental movement is filled with watermelons - green on the outside, red on the inside)
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To: radiohead

Sweet. Even with a major bridge down, Minneapolis-St. Paul is off the list.


36 posted on 09/02/2008 8:14:19 AM PDT by JimHorn
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To: weegee

Our government is doing much the same. There is a chunk-o-highway in Seattle called the Alaska Way viaduct, which is really just a limited access arterial (our only one), which the city wants to tear down and force commuters that use it to surface streets.

To replace the 520 bridge, with another bridge the same size that would not reduce congestion by one car, they want to implement tolls on both 520 and I-90.

Every road package they put up is laden with pork for light rail and busses, but they dont want to create any more capacity for roads ... then they are incensed when we dont pass the packages.

When they do build additional lanes, they are made into HOV lanes. Now, they are starting to charge tolls to people who want to use the HOV lanes.

A week ago the mayor did a “car free Seattle” thingy and towed away peoples cars for parking them in front of thier houses. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2068016/posts

The humor in all of this, if there is any, is that we have the highest gas taxes in the nation ... and a state that says there is no money for new roads. The Tacoma-Seattle-Everett Corridor has exactly 2 routes that you can take to get from Tacoma to Everett without having to stop at a light, and those two routes (I-5 and 405/167) both will drop you down to as few as 2 lanes each way at critical junctures.

On top of all this, we have a thingy out here called the CAO (Critical Areas Ordinance) which effectively forces development into cities instead of in the counties. They want density and control of the sheeples.

Our transit system is a hub/spoke system, which means that suburb to suburb commuting is pretty much impossible on transit.


37 posted on 09/02/2008 8:21:38 AM PDT by RainMan
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To: proudpapa

LOL. I thought Seattle was one of those that either biked or walked all for the enviornment of course.


38 posted on 09/02/2008 8:28:05 AM PDT by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote.)
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To: radiohead

there are actually some people in detroit who work...but there is no money to fix the roads, or to add new ones, it is not uncommon to sit in stopped traffic for up to 35 minutes....... but we have the fattest welfare recipients in the nation, with lifetime benefits..


39 posted on 09/02/2008 8:32:22 AM PDT by joe fonebone (The Second Amendment is the Constitutions reset button)
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To: Vigilanteman
Here is the sportutegirl's plan to reduce our dependence on oil, (as compared to Obama's inflated plan).

Build enough highways so there is no gridlock.

Time redlights to minimize waiting-no one should ever stop if there is no opposing traffic.

Design intersections to speed traffic through the intersection with as little stopping and waiting as possible. My favorite design is the cloverleaf intersection.

Consider the lowly intersection: everyone wants to traverse the middle square of real estate. Design a red light to minimize each car's time in the square. Use multiple left turn lanes to maximize the number of cars that get through on a left turn arrow. More lanes mean more cars that get through on each green cycle. An ideal intersection would have the same number of left turn lanes and straight lanes as the number of lanes in the highway, along with at least one dedicated right turn lane.

Finally, right turn on red should be the law in all 50 states.

40 posted on 09/02/2008 8:34:59 AM PDT by sportutegrl
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