Our Congestion Problem

Research conducted for this project verifies that there is a tremendous amount of travel in the SCAG region.  As an example, in Los Angeles County there are about 230 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) every day.  The other five SCAG counties together add another 220 million daily VMT.  Measured in time, the vehicle hours traveled (VHT) for LA County are over 8 million hours every day and the other five SCAG counties together add an additional 6 million hours of daily travel.  This combined demand on a limited transportation system results in up to 86% of peak travel and 43% of all daily travel occuring under congested conditions.  Congestion in the region increases travel time by up to 92%, costing the region $11 billion annually in wasted time and fuel.

These high levels of VMT & VHT correspond to undesirable operating conditions on our freeways, reflected in low travel speeds and longer travel times.  On average, every driver in the region spends more than 20 minutes in delay each day, and about 5.7 million person-hours are lost each day to traffic delays. Despite significant investments in rail transit capacity and the second highest bus ridership in the nation, transit constitutes less than 4% of all trips. Conditions are only expected to worsen as the region grows to 24 million residents by 2035. Daily delay per capita will rise to over 30 minutes, and peak period freeway speeds will drop below 15 miles per hour on most major routes.