BEEP, HONK, OUTTA MY WAY…WHO DRIVES THE MOST? ULI'S ROBERT DUNPHY LOOKS AT URBAN ROAD WARRIORS
	by Robert Dunphy (pictured at left), senior resident fellow for transportation at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C.  WASHINGTON, DC -- (March 8, 2002) -- Who drives the most and the least among large U.S. metropolitan regions?

According to the latest Highway Statistics 2000, recently released from the Federal Highway Administration, the gold medal belongs to residents of Houston, who logged an average of 37 miles of driving daily for each man, woman, and child, followed closely by Atlanta, with 34. Other large urban areas in the road warrior category (in descending order) were Indianapolis, (32) Dallas-Fort Worth (31), Austin (31), Charlotte (30), San Antonio (29), Kansas City (29), St. Louis (29), and Jacksonville (28).

The list includes all of the four largest regions in Texas-no surprise there-as well as three in the Midwest and three in the South. Surprisingly, none of the presumably car dependent regions in California or anywhere in the West made it to the top. Los Angeles, often considered the car capital of the US, ranked 30th among large urbanized areas. 

At the other extreme, the lowest levels of driving occurred not in New York City-it was second at 15.4 miles per capita - but in New Orleans (14.5 miles). Others among the lowest driving list were Philadelphia (19) Las Vegas (19), Miami (19), Buffalo (19), Boston (20), Chicago (20), Milwaukee (21), and Cleveland (21). Most of these are older, industrialized communities, including many of the leading transit cities - New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago.

Two of the traditional "good planning" communities in the northwest, Seattle and Portland-Vancouver weighed in somewhere in the middle, with an average of 26 and 24 miles traveled per capita daily, respectively. Portland was tied with San Diego and San Jose. Los Angeles and San Francisco were even lower, and just about equal in their driving levels, another contrary finding.

One qualification is that the traffic data measures all travel through the area, including trucks and through trips. David Schrank and Tim Lomax of the Texas Transportation Institute, authors of the Annual Mobility Report, (the definitive work on congestion in metropolitan areas) point out that many of the high driving regions are hubs for interstate highway connections with extensive travel from out of the region, which tends to overstate the travel of the local community. This can be a special problem for smaller regions, with large amounts of through traffic. In addition, it should be noted that the source for this data is state transportation departments, not the U.S. Census, so the density figures may not match those of other sources.

A major distinguishing factor between the high driving and the low driving lists is density. Higher density communities tend to have higher levels of transit, some destinations within walking distance, and lower levels of driving. High regional densities also mean that things are closer together, so driving trips can be shorter. The lowest driving regions have urbanized area densities generally above 3,000 persons per square mile, in contrast to the high driving areas, which are generally at or below 2,000 persons per square mile.

The combination of high density and extensive transit service in places like New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago makes it easy to use public transit and walk, and often hard to drive. In contrast, lower densities and lower transit use common in Houston, Atlanta, Indianapolis, and the other high-driving areas make it hard to walk and use transit and relatively easy to drive. Another factor that influences driving is income, with greater prosperity resulting in higher levels of auto ownership and use. Low incomes could explain the low levels of driving in New Orleans, which also had high density and higher transit use, and Buffalo, which had neither. The density figures are consistent with other sources that indicate both Los Angeles and Miami have urbanized area densities that exceed those of New York.

Many find it hard to believe that Los Angeles is a high-density region, whose residents drive less than those of the Washington, D.C. area, despite Los Angeles' reputation as a sprawling, low density, freeway capital of the U.S. It is also surprising to find that Las Vegas is a high-density, low driving area. Houston and Atlanta are among the lowest density areas in the list, along with St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Kansas City, which partially explains their high driving levels. An interesting comparison is Austin, Phoenix, and Minneapolis-St. Paul, which had virtually identical densities, a little above 2000 persons per square mile. However, their driving is vastly different. The average resident of the Austin region-including its suburbs-drives 31 miles a day, well above those in Phoenix and Minneapolis.

While there are some obvious explanations for the differences in driving, there appear to be many unique regional factors as well, which require knowledge of the local market. Race and class divisions that artificially separate people geographically can increase driving. So can policies that encourage commercial development for its tax revenues and discourage residential development, creating imbalances between jobs and housing. This data reflects the combined influence of a range of public policies and individual behavior across all jurisdictions in a region.

It is intriguing to imagine what would happen if some of these communities could switch places. If Houstonians only drove as much as Los Angelinos, they would have the roads to themselves. For that matter, if people in Houston only drove as much as residents of the Atlanta region, congestion would be vastly improved. Many regions, concerned about congestion and other traffic impacts, are attempting to slow the growth of driving, or even reduce per capita levels. One reason that national trends in driving are likely to exceed population growth is that most of the low-driving regions are growing slowly, at best, while the urbanized areas with the highest levels of driving are booming -places like Atlanta, which has been proclaimed one of the fastest-growing communities on earth.

Highway Statistics 2000 can be found on the Federal Highway Administration web site at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/hs00/index.htm

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