Traffic Continues to Jam Its Way Around the World

Sometimes things make you wonder! For instance, during the last couple of years we've heard nothing but talk about economic downturns and slowdowns and while sales have, indeed, suffered and as thousands have joined the ranks of the jobless, it seems that traffic jams just continue to be as bad as ever.

One would think that by looking at a recent story by USNews.rankingsandreviews.com, that, at least in the United States, traffic jams should be abating, but if you were to drive the streets of Boston or New York at rush hour, as we have, you would think to yourself "if there's a recession on, why are there so many cars still out here honking away?"

Actually, you would be right and you would be wrong at the same time. This sounds contradictory, but it is still correct, however. Take a look at some of the information compiled by USNews.rankingsandreviews.com, and you will see that while there is some minor movement away from cars, due mainly to the recession, it isn't a huge dip.

Quoting "Kicking Tires," a blog run by Cars.com, USNews "noted that those who drove alone to work dropped about one-tenth-of-a-percent from 2007 to 2008, while USA Today reported that the "share of households with one car or no car is up from 41.8 to 42.2 percent" in the same period. That's about 560,000 cars, the publication reported.

So, while these figures are encouraging, they still help to explain why we have to live with excruciating commutes everyday. Things are changing, but very slowly with only a slight increase in carpooling and a slight decrease in cars on the road. There are still roughly 250 million cars on the road in the United States today, indicates answers.ask.com. So, while things are creeping in the right directions they are only small dents.

It also explains why in the rest of the world there are at least 10 to 20 cities with traffic jams that are hours long and which make gridlock an artform. People are not leaving their cars home. They are driving them everywhere. Indeed, if you were to look for the top 10 cities with the worst traffic jams as Allworldcars.com/wordpress did last fall, you would find the list is:

1. Tokyo - Leading the list of offending cities, the Japanese capital has perhaps the best monorail system of mass transit on the planet, yet its streets are still full of stopped traffic, all watched by 17,000 traffic detectors that were installed to keep things moving. They haven't helped much.
   
2. Los Angeles - No, Angelenos are not dreaming, their vaunted freeway system is more like a bogway system at rush hour. They made the Allworldcars.com list "as one of the most congested cities in the United States." Anyone caught in rush hour out there can attest to that fact.
   
3. Sao Paolo, Brazil - If you were to have driving in the last year in Sao Paolo, you would find the city that Time Magazine has rated as its worst traffic slog-and-crawl traffic zone. For example, the publication pointed out that on May 9, 2008, Sao Paolo set a record with more than 166 miles of cram-and-jam traffic on its total 522 miles of roadway. Fully 31 percent of the resort city's traffic was bogged to a standstill. Interestingly, rather than having this traffic slog encourage people out of their cars, more than 1,000 new cars are sold there every day.
   
4. Bangkok - Even after installing a new rapid transit/light-rail system and new roadways, the Thai city is still a traffic nightmare, Allworldcars.com/wordpress noted. Drivers not only have to watch out for other cars leaping into traffic from all angles, but they also have to worry about bicyclists doing the same.
   
5. Moscow - Moscow has a different problem with traffic jams, the ezine points out, winter. Because Muscovite drivers have to face mind-numbing cold, they also run the risk of black ice so drivers just slow to a crawl. It's funny, Allworldcars.com/wordpress notes, that the high quality of life in Moscow encourages car ownership and because of the number of cars trying to fit onto narrow streets, traffic grinds to a halt. The ezine calls for street rebuilding as one answer to the problem.
   
6. Shanghai - Prosperity and semi-capitalism have been a twin-edged sword for this Chinese city. As recently as 1998, the ezine pointed out, there were only 7,000 vehicles in the entire city, a figure that jumped by 2,400 percent by 2003 when there were 170,000 cars on the streets. It meant instant gridlock.
   
7. Mumbai - India's leading city is also its leader in traffic jams thanks to, among other things, "narrow streets and a high number of cars," Allworldcars points out.
   
8. Mexico City - Long famed for its insufferable traffic jams, the Mexican capital tried to open things up by having special car days on its streets where some cars could drive into the city, while others couldn't. Even the best of intentions, Allworldcars points out, haven't been able to make an appreciable dent in traffic.
   
9. New York City - Traffic has always seemed heavy in New York, but there has always seemed to have been enough space to handle the volume, however, a few years back, as the number of inhabitants in the city grew, so did the number of cars and the available land is now gone, Allworldcars notes.
   
10. Seoul, Korea - In spite of several car crises and economic slowdowns, Allworldcars noted, people overcame and bought new cars and now the city doesn't know if it will have enough space to handle the crunch it feels at commuting hours.