In some cities, the drop is more pronounced. Congestion has abated 36% in Atlanta; 57% in Tucson, Ariz.; 68% in Colorado Springs, Colo.; and 70% in Daytona Beach, Fla. In Riverside, Calif., it fell by 57%. Among the largest 100 metropolitan areas, congestion shrank in all but Baton Rouge, La.
The decline in miles driven began when gasoline prices crept above $3 a gallon in November 2007, said the Journal. By the time prices began to retreat from their $4-a-gallon high in mid-2008, the number of unemployed Americans began to rise. No drop of such significance has been previously recorded. With the exceptions of a few short-lived dips during previous recessions, Americans have driven more every year since national record-keeping began.
The impact of the 1.9% decrease in miles driven this year is magnified by the nature of congestion, said the report. The capacity of many major U.S. roads is at a constant tipping point, Schuman said. When capacity is reached, the addition or subtraction of a relatively small number of vehicles can have an outsize effect on traffic flow. That is especially true at the nation's bottlenecks--when traffic moves at less than half the speed of free-flowing traffic--the number and severity of which decreased by about one-third from 2007 to 2008, Schuman said.
The decline in driving has created winners and losers. In 2005, the average American commuter wasted 44 hours in traffic jams and $710 in fuel, Tim Lomax of the Texas Transportation Institute told the paper. Both numbers are set to fall in 2009, he said, which is good news for people commuting into city centers from far-flung "exurbs."
But a less car-centric America is not such good news for restaurants, the Journal said. UBS analyst David Palmer said drive-through business was off 4% in 2008 from a year before. The proportion of the revenue generated by drive-throughs among fast-food hamburger chains dropped by two percentage points in the same time frame.
Among those hardest hit are the nation's turnpikes, the report said. Both public and private toll authorities are scrambling to counter declines in traffic with rate increases and employee layoffs, Peter Samuels, editor of Tollroads News, told the paper. Samuels said about half of the 40 largest toll authorities in the country have raised rates in the past year.
In Boston, an 8.5% decline in vehicles on the Massachusetts Turnpike helped spur the turnpike's director to cut overtime for toll takers. That, in turn, left the Pike short-handed over Easter weekend, which contributed to a three-hour traffic jam.
In New York, declines in the number of vehicles traveling over Metropolitan Transportation Authority bridges and tunnels fell to 21.9 million in January this year from 23.6 million in January 2008. That drop presents a challenge, because road tolls subsidize MTA subways, which are more likely to be used as people get out of their cars. Ridership on public-transit systems across the country is at a 52-year high, according to the report, citing the American Public Transportation Association.
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