by Frank Juliano
If it seems like you”™ve been sitting in traffic even longer this year, well, you”™re right.
The average commuters driving the 23 miles between Bridgeport and Stamford on I-95 spent 49 extra hours in their vehicle last year due to traffic congestion, and paid an additional $1,174 in fuel costs for the privilege.
That”™s more than two whole days of your life sitting in traffic, enough to make the Bridgeport-Stamford corridor the 19th-worst commute in the U.S. last year, according to a report recently released by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and INRIX Inc., a global data analytics firm with its U.S. headquarters in the state of Washington.
The same report found in 2011 the Bridgeport-Stamford commute on I-95 ate up 42 hours and cost $902 in additional fuel costs.
And keep in mind gas prices have dropped during the intervening years, even while area commuters burned up more fuel waiting for the road ahead to clear.
Traffic congestion nationally reached a new peak last year and is greater than ever before, according to the study.
The time it takes to make the 23-mile trip from Bridgeport to Stamford on Interstate 95 increases from 20 minutes at “optimal” times to as long as more than an hour when congestion is at its peak, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute survey found.
Commuters in Washington, D.C. suffer the most, losing an average of 82 hours a year to rush-hour slowdowns, the study found. Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York come next on the list of urban areas with the longest delays.
The improving economy accounts for much of the increase in traffic volume and commuting delays, the analysts said.
With the recession in the rear-view mirror, the brake lights on the car ahead of you keep flashing on and off.
Overall, American motorists are stuck in traffic about 5 percent more than they were in 2007, the pre-recession peak, the report said.
Four out of five cities have now surpassed their 2007 congestion.
Rounding out the top 10 worst commuting cities are San Jose, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Houston and Riverside-San Bernardino.
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News-Times (Danbury). See ctpost.com for more from this reporter.
