The costs of congestion

Getting stuck in traffic is bad for our health, it’s bad for our environment, and, increasingly, employers are realizing it’s bad for business.

More than 50 employers met today for a “lunch and learn” on the top floor of US Bank Plaza in downtown Minneapolis. As they popped open box lunches and bottled water, officials from the Metropolitan Council and the Downtown Minneapolis Transportation Management Organization (TMO) presented an under-the-hood look at the Twin Cities’ transportation system.

Twin Cities drivers are making nearly twice as many trips per day compared to 30 years ago, said Charles Carlson, a transportation planner at the Metropolitan Council, the Twin Cities’ planning agency. In 1970, residents got in their cars an average of 2.7 times per day. By 2000, that number was up to 4.2 trips a day. Meanwhile, the metro sprawled out and added freeway lanes, leading the number of miles driven per year in the region to balloon from 20 million in 1970 to 60 million in 2000.

“More people, taking more trips, driving more miles has really added up to a big problem for the system,” Carlson said.That problem could be compounded in the next couple decades. The Twin Cities are projected to add another million people by 2030. And counties adjacent to the Twin Cities are predicted to add another half million residents, many of whom are likely to commute to job centers closer to the city. Twin Cities commuters waste more than 41 million gallons of fuel every year while idling in traffic jams. That’s a lot of carbon entering the atmosphere, and transportation is already the second biggest source of greenhouse-gas emissions after electricity generation.

Teresa Wernecke, director of the Downtown Minneapolis TMO, framed the problem as a matter of productivity and employee relations. About 60 million hours were estimated to be lost in travel delays in 2005 in the Twin Cities. The regional study estimated the annual cost of traffic jams to the local economy at $1 billion.

A company’s productivity drops when its employees arrived stressed from their commutes, when service trucks can’t make as many stops, and when clients are late to meetings, she said. And dissatisfaction with a commute can be as important a factor as the actual job experience when employees look to move on.

“It impacts the bottom line for your business,” Wernecke said.

The good news is that there is a way out of the traffic drain, she said. More employers are using Metro Transit bus passes as an employee perk for recruiting and retention. About half of employees in downtown Minneapolis live less than 10 miles from their workplaces, which means bicycling and walking is an option for some. Technology is helping suburban and rural commuters arrange carpooling and van-pooling, as well as telecommutes.

And finding ways to help employees leave their cars at home helps reduce air pollution and global warming, which can improve a company’s reputation, Wernecke said.

“There is going to be an opportunity for the recognition for those who are providing that leadership.”

Photo: WikiMedia