Traffic jams cost Canada billions: report
Mike Oliveira
Canadian Press
23 March 2006
TORONTO -- Worsening urban congestion is costing Canadians billions of dollars a year and the waste is likely to get worse with a growing population, more cars on the road and the urbanization of towns, according to a new Transport Canada study.
The study is the first national analysis of congestion and estimates the cost of bad traffic in Canada's nine biggest cities -- Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa-Gatineau, Montreal and Quebec City -- is between $2.3 billion and $3.7 billion a year.
More than 90 per cent of the waste is the value of time lost in traffic, seven per cent is the cost of fuel consumption, and three per cent is associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions.
"The results show how costly congestion is, but they also show just how much more we need to do to understand it. And let's be honest, we all contribute to this problem," said federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon. "We drive to the video store when we could walk. We drive to work when we could take public transit. We even drive to the gym when we know we should bike."
Congestion on the roads is especially damaging to the environment and adds to gas bills because a vehicle travelling at 20 km/h operates less efficiently and spews more pollution than when it is moving at 60 km/h, the report states.
And as expensive as today's driving conditions are, they are likely to get worse. With the national population expected to rise by 0.75 per cent annually until 2020, car ownership growing at a greater rate, and urbanization changing the landscape of the country, congestion is projected to get increasingly heavy.
Mike Oliveira
Canadian Press
23 March 2006
TORONTO -- Worsening urban congestion is costing Canadians billions of dollars a year and the waste is likely to get worse with a growing population, more cars on the road and the urbanization of towns, according to a new Transport Canada study.
The study is the first national analysis of congestion and estimates the cost of bad traffic in Canada's nine biggest cities -- Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa-Gatineau, Montreal and Quebec City -- is between $2.3 billion and $3.7 billion a year.
More than 90 per cent of the waste is the value of time lost in traffic, seven per cent is the cost of fuel consumption, and three per cent is associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions.
"The results show how costly congestion is, but they also show just how much more we need to do to understand it. And let's be honest, we all contribute to this problem," said federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon. "We drive to the video store when we could walk. We drive to work when we could take public transit. We even drive to the gym when we know we should bike."
Congestion on the roads is especially damaging to the environment and adds to gas bills because a vehicle travelling at 20 km/h operates less efficiently and spews more pollution than when it is moving at 60 km/h, the report states.
And as expensive as today's driving conditions are, they are likely to get worse. With the national population expected to rise by 0.75 per cent annually until 2020, car ownership growing at a greater rate, and urbanization changing the landscape of the country, congestion is projected to get increasingly heavy.