A study commissioned by the Northwest Arkansas Council has put a dollar figure on the cost of traff c congestion in the region: $103 million a year.
The number represents what engineers from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute calculate all of us spend collectively in lost time and fuel as we sit in traffic in Benton and Washington counties.
It is an interesting calculation and new fodder in the ongoing debate over a proposed half-cent sales tax scheduled for consideration on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.
The cost related to congestion is mostly a hidden expense, something few of us consciously examine. Instead, when caught in slow-moving traffic because of a wreck or some other delay, we just keep checking our watches or call ahead to explain what is keeping us from our destinations.
But there is a real cost to that delay both in time and in fuel.
Consider the small business operator, perhaps a plumber or electrician with a handful of employees dispatched to job sites that may be relatively far flung within a community. The longer it takes to get to or from a job site, the more time the business invests in congestion instead of actual work.
Expand that thought to a major company, sending many large loads of merchandise out of a manufacturing plant located in the urban area.
The cost of congestion multiplies and must be calculated in the cost of doing business from Northwest Arkansas.
For individuals, congestion can mean the difterence in getting to a job on schedule, arriving at an event or even delivering a child to school or to karate or gymnastics classes on time.
None of us who commute within Northwest Arkansas for work or pleasure is untouched by the eftects of congestion.
Until now, the cost hadn’t been quantified. But Texas A&M Transportation Institute has attempted to do that, concluding congestion here is actually worse than in some Texas cities withlarger populations.
Tim Lomax, a senior research engineer with the institute, explained the study results last week.
The data was collected over a six-month period on eight dift erent stretches of roadway to estimate overall traff c congestion in the two counties.
Northwest Arkansas Council, a private nonprofi t organization of business and civic leaders, paid for the study and chose the roadways that were analyzed. The choices represent less than 10 percent of the existing freeway and major street mileage in the two counties but at least 40 percent of the delay, according to the research.
Included were segments of U.S. 412 west from Springdale, 71B in both Rogers and Bentonville, a segment of Walnut Street in Rogers, College Avenue in Fayetteville, Thompson Street in Springdale and I-540 in both Fayetteville and Springdale. Each of the segments was at least four miles long.
The highest annual congestion cost, $12.6 million, was reported for the stretch of U.S. 412 from Thompson in Springdale to Highway 112 in Tontitown.
Other studied routes carry a yearly cost of $2.4 million to $11.2 million each. Collectively, they account for more than $62million of the projected annual cost of congestion, while other road segments that were not analyzed in the study are estimated to contribute almost $41 million in additional transportation costs.
Details of the study are available online at www.
movenwaforward.com under the research tab.
The three-page report is accessible through a link at the bottom of the page.
Statistical studies like this are based on data from multiple sources, including estimations. So, it may be less useful to lock in on the exact dollar fi gures being projected here than the overall point traff c congestion costs all of us money.
We intuitively know it does, but the fact doesn’t automatically come the mind.
This study simply forces the subject front of mind and gives Northwest Arkansas voters something more to consider when evaluating proposed constitutional Amendment 1. That’s the measure that would, for the next 10 years, levy a half-cent sales tax in Arkansas to fund a new bond issue for highway improvements, including signifi cant work within Northwest Arkansas.
BRENDA BLAGG IS A FREELANCE COLUMNIST.
Opinion, Pages 12 on 10/14/2012