Less Roads, More Congestion

The metropolitan Washington area is the nation’s 8th most populous but ranks 30th in terms of its ratio of population of miles of roads per thousands of people.

The latest Federal Highway Administration figures show that we have only 2.9 miles of roadway per 1,000 population, good enough for 30th place in the nation’s 40 largest metropolitan areas.

Metropolitan areas that have more miles of road per 1,000 people and less congestion include:

• Atlanta (4.4)
  

• Baltimore (3.1)
  

• Boston (3.5)
  

• Chicago (3.1)
  

• Dallas-Ft Worth (4.8)
  

• Denver (3.5)
  

• Houston (6.1)
  

• Orlando (3.1)
  

• Philadelphia (3.3)
  

• Pittsburgh (5.4)
  

• Phoenix (4.8)
  

• Portland (4.2)
  

• Seattle (3.6)
  

• Tampa-St. Petersburg (3.9)
  

• Washington (2.9)

Since the mid-1960s most of the planned Metrorail and commuter rail facilities have been built. The result: The nation’s second most successful mass transit system in terms of people moved per 1,000 population.

During this same time period more than 1500-lane miles of planned freeways have been removed from area maps. Thousands of additional lane miles of planned primary and secondary road improvements have been eliminated or delayed.

The result: One of the nation’s smallest road networks per 1000 population and the second most congested.