Big Projects, Big Benefits

"Every weekday, Marc Lipton drives the 101 freeway from his home in the San Fernando Valley to his job in downtown L.A., and his trip's not getting any easier. 'Traffic seems a lot worse than a couple of years ago,' Lipton says. 'I've shifted my life around to make my commute work. I leave before 6 a.m., and it takes about 45 minutes to go 30 miles. If I leave a half hour later, it takes more than an hour.' How bad is traffic congestion? A typical commuter in greater Los Angeles is stuck in traffic 90 hours a year, the worst in the nation by far. Unless we do something about it now, it's going to get worse. In fact, congestion will get worse before it gets better -- because we're not doing enough to improve our transportation systems, because California is still growing, and because major improvements take so much time. But if we take steps now to reverse decades of inattention and underinvestment, we can start to improve mobility and safety on Southern California's roads and transit systems."

Thanks to Stephen Finnegan