Salt Lake area traffic is in a jam

As traffic congestion worsens nationwide, traffic in the Salt Lake area is keeping up with metropolitan areas its size.

The annual Texas Transportation Institute Urban Mobility Study, released Tuesday, paints a picture of a country in which more and more people are driving more and more often. And in Salt Lake City, as in cities nationwide, the traffic snarls will not be solved by any one remedy, the report suggests.

"We're facing an increasingly urgent situation," Tim Lomax, one of the study's authors, said in a press release.

"To make real progress, it's critical that we pursue all transportation solutions — short-range, small-scale projects and policies, mid-range efficiency programs and longer-term, more-significant projects and programs that require more planning and design time."

Unlike studies in years past, the 2004 study, which used data from 2002, did not offer overall congestion rankings. However, rankings in individual congestion factors all seem to indicate the Salt Lake area is moving up on the list. The study in 2003 listed Salt Lake area as the 41st most-congested metropolitan area in the country.

This year, the Salt Lake area ranked 34th in each peak-hour traveler's yearly delay. The average Salt Lake driver lost 32 hours driving in congestion.

Traffic delays in the Salt Lake area cost 26 million extra gallons of fuel in 2002, the study showed — the 37th highest in the nation.

"Compared to other cities in the study, what makes Utah different is the amount of growth we have," Utah Department of Transportation spokesman Nile Easton said.

He said growth over the next decade is projected to be at about 30 percent. On top of that, drivers who are already here are expected to double the amount of time they spend on the roads.

Easton agreed with the study's authors, who said new roads and public transportation systems alone will not ease traffic congestion enough to match its growth.

"What we've decided is one thing we need to do is make what we have function better," Easton said.

Among those improvements, he said Utahns need to rethink how they drive.

"What we need to see in Utah over the next couple of years is basically behavioral change in how we're mobile as a state," Easton said.