Western drivers taken for a ride

Thursday, Nov. 30, 2000 | 11:35 a.m.

Driving in western cities, including Las Vegas, is an expensive proposition and getting more expensive all the time, a Washington, D.C.-based research group says in a study released today.

The Surface Transportation Policy Project, a nonprofit group that advocates mass transit and alternatives to cars, found that Americans spend more on transportation than on health care, education or food -- almost 20 percent of the average household budget.

In the West, and in cities where highways are getting bigger and farther out from metropolitan centers, those numbers go up even more, the group said.

The group did not specifically study Las Vegas, but an analyst with the group said the numbers are probably higher here than in many other cities in the West.

Citing 1995 Federal Highway Administration figures, analyst Michelle Garland said the typical household in Las Vegas is on the road for 22,829 miles a year -- 12th out of 55 metropolitan areas.

Citing a Texas Transportation Institute study from last year, Garland said the vehicle miles traveled in the urbanized area of Las Vegas has grown 183 percent since 1982, the largest increase in the West and second nationally to Orlando, Fla., which grew by 184 percent.

Garland said that means that residents of the city are spending more time in their cars and spending more money to get where they're going.

"Certainly, we've seen a huge growth in driving in all metropolitan areas, but Las Vegas is the largest in the West (among large cities)," she said. "That's astonishing."

The study was released locally by the local group of the national Sierra Club, an environmental organization that also is critical of highway building and expanding, locally and nationally.

"The study shows how sprawl turns driving from a convenient choice into an expensive necessity," said Jane Feldman, co-chairwoman of the group's local conservation committee. "This study shows that we can save families money if we provide more transportation choices and more convenient communities.

"We still have time to make this happen for Las Vegas," Feldman said.

The group is fighting some high-profile highway projects, including the planned widening of U.S. 95 in the Las Vegas Valley's northwest.

"While a less expensive home far from town may seem to be a good bargain, many families end up spending more on vehicles to reach that home," said Jessica Hodge, a Sierra Club organizer for the Las Vegas Valley area.

The study said that the faster new roads and highways are built, the faster transportation costs escalate. The most expensive metro areas for transportation are those "with sprawling, auto-oriented development."

Households in Houston, Texas, use 22 cents of every dollar spent to get around. That translates to $8,800 a year for transportation, $2,528 more than the national average.

Highway spending in Houston, Dallas and Atlanta grew by an average of 18 percent since 1988, the study found. Highway mileage grew by more than 21 percent, and the portion of household budgets going to transportation have grown by 17 percent in 10 years.

People are feeling the impact nationwide, Garland said.

"It's less safe for people to walk in major metro areas, air quality is degrading, so is water quality, there's loss of environmental habitat and we're spending a lot more time in cars," she said.

She said mothers in large metro areas spend almost 17 solid days per year in a car.

"That's more time than they spend on primary child care," Garland said. "It's eating up our time, it's eating up our money, and we need to make some changes."

Garland said her group supports mass transit and transportation alternatives, such as bicycling or walking. It also supports putting recreational, shopping and work venues closer to homes.

Jacob Snow, general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission, agrees that transportation choices are good, but doesn't agree that halting road building will be good for Las Vegas.

He argued that building roads to keep pace with a population growing by about 60,000 people per year is essential.

"The worst thing we can do in this community at this point is to stop building roads," Snow said. For every 1,000 people that comes to the valley, they bring 752 automobiles, he said.

Without new and better roads to efficiently carry those cars and people throughout the valley, it will mean cars stopped in traffic, people spending more time in those cars, and cars emitting exhaust as their engines idle, he said.

But the RTC also is seeking to improve mass transit through express bus services, a new monorail, and a network of pedestrian and bicycle paths throughout the urban area, Snow said.