The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) at Texas A&M University recently released the 2011 Urban Mobility Report.  This report, which includes data through 2010, d

etails traffic congestion in 101 metropolitan areas throughout the United States including Hampton Roads.
 
According to the Urban Mobility Report, each person who commutes to work by automobile in Hampton Roads spent an average of 34 hours stuck in congestion in 2010.  This is up from 32 hours in 2009 but is down from the middle of the last decade, when Hampton Roads commuters annually spent more than 40 hours stuck in congestion.  According to the report, this decrease is common throughout the country and is largely attributable to the impacts of the economic downturn.

Hampton Roads has a higher level of congestion than many other metropolitan areas according to the report.  Among 31 comparable large metropolitan areas throughout the United States with populations between one and three million people, Hampton Roads had the 10th highest delay per auto commuter in 2010. This delay has a cost in terms of lost time, wasted fuel, and impacts on commercial vehicles.  According to TTI, congestion cost the Hampton Roads region a total of $693 million in 2010, or an average of $654 for each person that commutes to work by automobile.

For more information on the TTI Urban Mobility Report, please visit the Urban Mobility Report website at http://mobility.tamu.edu.