A new report by a navigation and mapping company called Navteq shows that Denver has the 10th worst rush hour traffic in the country. Elsewhere on the list are large, old cities with huge commuter populations and limited physical space in which to increase capacity -- like New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco -- and newer cities that were never public transportation-oriented -- like Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and, of course, Denver.
But the Denver example struck me, because the last time I remember reading about commuters and Denver it was this story from The New York Times from 2008 about an 8 percent surge in the number of people taking trains and buses to work. The reason, lest you've forgotten, was the high price of gas that spring and summer, topping $4 a gallon in many places. Transit use was up in other surprising cities as well, including many on that list.
The lesson should be pretty clear. An increase in gas prices encourages people to move to public transportation -- which is better for everyone. That we haven't seemed to let this sink in and made moves to increase the gasoline tax and take other policy actions to encourage this shift at the same time that we bring in more tax dollars to increase public transportation capacity is what's discouraging.
-- Monica Potts
