Traffic vs. Kids
How Gridlock Hurts Families
2000-13
Nearly everyone is familiar with the discouraging experience of sitting motionless in traffic on a four-lane expressway, gazing placidly at the rear bumper of the next car, while a large metal sign on the roadside informs drivers, “Speed Limit 60 mph.” For many Washington drivers this is a twice-daily event.
We often hear that traffic congestion contributes to a “diminished quality of life,” but what does that well-worn phrase really mean? Beyond the dry numbers and sterile statistics that make up much of the public debate over transportation lie the real challenges facing millions of Washington citizens, ordinary people who are simply trying to get on with their lives.
Increasing highway congestion means more than flaring tempers and a drain on the economy. It is about how time spent on the road detracts from life at home, in the workplace and in our communities. The focus of the transportation debate tends to be directed at the frustration of dealing with heavy traffic, while the real concern should be what is lost elsewhere.
Sitting in traffic means absent mothers and fathers, missed soccer games, canceled family dinners, foregone visits to grandparents and relatives, all because it is just getting too difficult to get around. These are only some of the elusive and indirect ways clogged roads erode the strength of family life in our communities. The daily round of traveling to school, work, daycare, sports, on needed errands, and back home again makes many family members feel they spend more time in the car than they do with each other.
In the transportation debate, the views of organized interests in government and business are well represented. The construction industry, government unions, public officeholders, highway planners and transportation companies all have a strong voice in the process. Most of the discussion of how to solve our transportation problem centers on the impact on the economy and on how to identify funding sources. The average mom or dad, however, is generally too busy meeting everyday necessities to attend hearings in Olympia or go to public meetings of the local planning commission. An essential element is starkly missing from the policy discussion: how a poorly operated network of roads severely impacts families.
To fill this need the Washington Family Council and the Washington Institute set out to identify and measure the many subtle ways traffic affects families. We surveyed 402 Washington adults to find out what they think about traffic and the part it plays in their personal and family lives. The survey centered on the area with the worst traffic congestion in the state, Pierce, King and Snohomish counties.
We found that 82% of respondents said traffic had an impact on their ability to spend time with their families. Of these 29% said traffic had a large impact, 31% said traffic had some impact, and about 22% said it had a little impact.
Not surprisingly, the extent to which traffic affects people is related to their age. In our survey, those over 55 were far more likely to say that traffic doesn’t have much affect on them. The strongest impact of gridlock is felt by younger people in the midst of forming and raising their families.
We asked whether traffic prevents people from joining family gatherings. Again, the largest impact is felt by families with children at home. Fully 55% of them said they miss or are late for at least one family-related event per week; 13% said they are late or miss two events per week. Think about this over the course of a year. Some families are missing out on over 100 chances to come together and share their lives, all because it’s getting too hard to get around.
In order to determine what people would do if they could spend less time in traffic, respondents were asked how they might otherwise spend their time. Only 9% said they would spend more time at work, but 62% said they would spend more time with their families. An additional 15% said they would put more time into volunteer work or community service.
The source of the problem is no mystery to most people: it’s our overburdened road system. An interstate highway system designed in the 1950s and built in the 1960s continues to form the core of the overall network. The present interstates were originally designed to meet traffic needs for twenty years. The population of the three-county region covered by our survey is 60% larger today than it was when Interstate 5 opened, so these highways are now operating far beyond their original design capacity.
Traffic is bad enough when, as today, about 11%, or 794 miles of the state highway system experiences acute congestion on any given weekday. Experts predict that over the next 20 years fully 37%, or 2,600 miles, of the highway system will be regularly blocked up and unable to function smoothly. Drivers in the Seattle-Everett metro area already each endure an average of 70 hours of delay per year, compared to the national average of about 40 hours. The break between morning and evening rush hours is expected to steadily diminish, until the Puget Sound region will experience severe traffic congestion throughout much of the day. Before long the only people who will expect an easy commute will be those working the night shift.
Our traffic survey is intended to put a human face on the mind-numbing statistics that tend to dominate discussion of our region’s traffic problems. The long-term consequences of traffic reach far beyond simple economics; it seeps into the foundation of an ordered society, the family. Our study provides new information to guide policymakers, the media, business leaders and ordinary citizens in finding real, workable transportation solutions that take into account the needs of families.
The Washington Family Council is also non-profit and is working to strengthen the family through cultural change and improved public policy. Visit them at www.wafamily.org