The costs of congestion

Streets Blog has reported on the report that New York City residents save at least $19 billion each year by driving less than other Americans http://bit.ly/b7AByO. The Report is by CEOs for cities at http://bit.ly/bAlH0g.

This is really interesting because it puts a cost on not doing things. For example the average New Yorker drives on average 9 miles a day instead of the American Average of 25. This equals a saving of €48 billion. Petrol saved = €2.4bn. These are staggering figures.

This is the type of analysis we need to make sensible decisions about cities and transport. Various associations can we quickly tell us about the costs of a traffic jam, but they equate this to a need to address that problem through good infrastructure.

This is particularly important for light rail/metro vs. bus arguments. This was highlighted at the Irish Planning Institute conference last week with regard to transport options for Belfast. The only figures presented are those of infrastructure cost. The bus is cheaper - go figure. But how many people does a bus get out of their cars, what is the cost of reserving that bus lane? Buses have very low capacity, and get stuck behing each other at bus stops. What about image and environment, and city competitiveness. Quality Bus Corridors are a great improvement, but the service is still a longway off rail.

If city streets are viewed as an asset, buses get to use that asset for a very low/ unquantified cost. In Dublin we have so many buses on street that I think they're having a negative impact on the main city thoroughfares.