Metro Denver has the fourth-most congested traffic among 25 metropolitan areas with populations of 1 million to 3 million, according to an urban-mobility report issued Tuesday.
The average commuter in the Denver area spends an extra 50 hours stuck in traffic each year, the Texas Transportation Institute report calculated.
Metro Denver was just behind San Diego; San Jose, Calif.; and Orlando, Fla., in the most- congested category among large urban areas.
The TTI report used 2005 data, the most recent year for which information was available. In 2006, the T-REX highway project was completed, improving traffic flow in south metro Denver.
When the nation’s 14 metropolitan areas of 3 million or more are included, metro Denver tied Miami for 11th out of 39.
Overall, greater Los Angeles recorded the worst congestion, with its commuters each wasting an extra 72 hours in traffic on average each year, the report said.
The San Francisco, Washington and Atlanta areas tied for second, with commuters wasting 60 extra hours a year.
The transportation institute, a unit of the Texas A&M University system, changed its methods for calculating congestion this year, clouding comparisons with its previous reports.
Colorado Springs had the second-most congested traffic in the country among 16 ranking small urban areas of 500,000 population or fewer, according to this year’s report.
Travelers in the Springs waste an average of 27 hours a year, putting the area just behind Charleston, S.C., as most congested U.S. small cities.
Metro Denver has seen more use of traffic-signal coordination, HOV lanes, highway incident-management cameras and ramp metering since 2002 – all measures aimed at reducing congestion, said David Schrank, TTI’s associate research scientist and an author of the study.
Colorado transportation and planning agencies, Schrank said, “are doing a wide variety of things to provide adequate transportation. But there’s plenty of room to grow.”
