The Economics of Traffic

Traffic is not only is a large burden to commuters, it also has negative effects on the economy and worldwide pollution. A recent study from Texas A&M has tagged a price on traffic in the United States, and the results are stunning. Traffic leads to environmental costs, mental/social costs and economic costs. Starting with the environmental costs, vehicles that are stuck in traffic will emit more carbon monoxide than the exact same vehicle traveling the exact same distance but in a shorter time. The researchers at Texas A&M found that drivers in Los Angeles spent an average 104 hours stuck in traffic. To put this in perspective, their cars were idling over 4 days on top of their current necessary usage solely due to traffic. This highway congestion also causes mental and social costs from being late or the stress that arises due to traffic. A large social cost of traffic that is often overlooked is the addition to air pollution that we discussed in the environmental costs. This extra output of carbon monoxide speeds up the process of global warming and can be especially hard on citizens that live in the large cities of the United States that have high levels of pollution, some due to traffic. The economical effects of traffic are also negative. Inrix, a company that monitors traffic information, estimated that traffic in the United States has led to a usage of over 3 billion gallons of fuel each year. This is an estimated cost of $300 billion dollars wasted on fuel from cars idling an unnecessary period of time due to traffic which divides up to about $1,400 per driver. If US drivers had an extra $1,400 of disposable income each year if they did not have to waste it on gas consumption due to traffic, there could potentially be more saving which will grow the economy in the long run or an increase in spending.

What can be done about this? The US Department of Transportation has recommended "zipper-merging" in order to cut down on traffic. Another possible solution could be subsidizing or offering tax rebates for hybrids that do not use fuel while idling which would eliminate the majority of the negative effects of traffic, but not all. Lastly, increased government spending on roadways would decrease traffic, but would most likely be difficult to get voters to justify the raise in tax to do so.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/traffic-is-piling-upand-so-are-its-costs-1510322400