Editorial: Time and money

Friday, Sept. 21, 2007 | 7:07 a.m.

American commuters are spending more time stuck in traffic , costing the nation billions in lost work hours and wasted fuel, the Texas Transportation Institute's annual report on urban mobility says.

The report, released Tuesday by the institute, which is part of Texas A&M University, analyzed figures from 2005, the most recent year for which complete figures were available. The analysis concluded that in 2005 the average American commuter spent 38 hours sitting in traffic and consumed an extra 26 gallons of fuel, which cost each traveler an extra $718.

In the Las Vegas Valley, the report says, travelers spent an average of 39 extra hours stuck in traffic, consuming an extra 27 gallons of fuel and spending an extra $720.

Losses of time and money are hardly revelations to the valley's commuters, but this report shows in hard numbers that we are spending far too much of both sitting still on our roads and freeways.

Although it would seem that the logical solution is to build more roads, that is only part of what must be a comprehensive solution. Tim Lomax, one of the report's authors, noted that "there is no ' magic' technology or solution on the horizon because there is no single cause for congestion."

That's pretty much what Jacob Snow, general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, wrote in a guest column for the Las Vegas Sun last month. If asphalt alone was to be the solution, transportation officials would have to lay 2,500 feet of it every day to accommodate the 100 cars that are added to the valley's roads daily, Snow said.

We simply cannot build our way out of our traffic tangle. More of us should carpool, use public transit and telecommute, when possible. While demanding that government expand our roads, we must also demand that the public transit system offer commuters a timely and affordable alternative to driving. And, of course, we must be willing to pay for it all, if there is to be any hope of fixing what's ailing Southern Nevada's commuters.