Perusing my local paper, The Chicago Tribune, I was drawn to the headline “Traffic Cost: $1,580 per driver”. Although this statistic didn’t make me spit out my morning coffee, as I mainly bike to and fro about the city, it caught my attention. So I filled my mug and read on to see how the average Chicago-land driver was dropping over a thousand dollars each year on traffic.
As I continued down the article my mood quickly went from “slightly curious” to “intensely irritated”. I thought my coffee was to blame (sometimes I make it a little strong), but after reading this figure I knew that wasn’t it: “Worsening congestion is causing commutes in the six-county region (Chicago-land area) to take longer, costing drivers and businesses $7.3 billion a year in wasted fuel and lost time”. $7.3 BILLION. I know that our traffic can be pretty bad, but $7.3 billion bad? Something’s gotta change.
Maybe a report like this is just one other motivation, in addition to the harm done to the environment, to get people looking at different alternatives to driving. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have $14.75 an hour (another figure from the report) to spend on sitting in traffic. I’ll be the one pushing on my pedals or publicly transporting myself, helping my wallet and the environment.
To read the full article by Jon Hilkevitch and Deborah Horan click here.
To read the report by the Metropolitan Planning Council click here.
Thu, Aug 7, 2008
Climate & Pollution, Green Living, Sustainable Cities