Early Adaptor

Traffic Congestion Costs Chicago $7.3 Billion A Year

You may want to sit down before reading how much it is costing to sit in traffic in the Chicago area. Worsening congestion is causing commutes in the six-county region to take longer, costing drivers and businesses $7.3 billion a year in wasted fuel and lost time. Gridlock is increasing the uncertainty about when workers will get to offices, when an overnight shipment will arrive at the loading dock and whether a pizza will still be hot when it is delivered, according to a study released Tuesday by the Metropolitan Planning Council, a non-profit civic group. Time wasted in traffic jams is costing commuters and their employers an average of $879 a year in the collar counties and $3,014 in Chicago, the study estimated. For the six-county region combined, the cost of congestion comes to an average of $1,579 for each worker and his or her employer. Overall, the loss for the region from extra commuting time caused by congestion totals $5.1 billion. The number grows to $6.98 billion when commercial vehicles are added. The absence of a coherent strategy to invest in transportation improvements—more mass-transit and expanded highway lanes—is costing the region $681 million a year in wasted gas because of congestion, the report said.
Traffic congestion’s toll is $7.3 billion a year in Chicago area