Study Finds Nation's Rush Hour Lasts 6 Hours

"[T]he timeframe we refer to as 'rush hour' in the nation's major cities has doubled in less than 20 years, increasing from nearly three hours (morning and evening combined) in 1982 to almost 6 hours in 1999. Congested travel periods today consume nearly half of the daylight hours in any given workday.That's one of several findings from the 2001 Urban Mobility Study, published Monday by the Texas Transportation Institute. In the annual study, TTI Researchers David Schrank and Tim Lomax use a variety of measures to illustrate the nation's growing traffic problem. The findings are intended to provide elected officials, policy makers and everyday commuters a collection of easily understood measures to support local decision-making related to freeway and street systems as well as a variety of other land-use issues." [Complete 71-page report is available online.]

Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan