The Cost of Congestion
One of the most fun and interesting studies to come out of the trucking industry every year is from the fine folks over at the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), where they use the power of math and statistics to determine how much more efficiently the United States economy could go if there were less traffic.
Methodology and Results
The ATRI calculated its number by finding out the lost amount of speed at particular bottlenecks in the nation, as well as the cost of operating a commercial truck in 2022.
They found the average speed of trucks increased slightly, which would normally reduce the cost of traffic as there is less of it on the road. At the same time, the cost of operating a truck increased more sharply than the average speed did, resulting in an increase in the cost of congestion.
There were a litany of factors that played into the spike in cost-per-hour of operating a truck. Two of the largest were an increased cost of diesel fuel in 2022 due to domestic and foreign policies reducing supply, and the supply chain of building new trucks still recovering from the COVID-19 lockdowns, resulting in them being more expensive than normal.
One might remember the anomaly back then where someone who bought a truck in 2020 could drive it for two years and sell it for more than they bought it for, something previously unheard of as demand outpaced depreciation.
In 2022, the estimated total of money spent in a not-optimal manner in the trucking industry due to traffic was $108 billion. This is an increase of $14 billion from 2021.
Conclusion
With 2022 perhaps being the year that had the strongest economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is likely that it will be an outlier in annual traffic costs and it will go down when ATRI reports 2023.
With that said, the number has been following a trend of gradual increase due to many reasons, perhaps the biggest being cars put on highways faster than the nation’s road network builds.
Hopefully this information of the increasing costs of traffic can convince those in government that infrastructure continues to be a bipartisan investment.
If you want to read the research findings yourself, you can do so through the ATRI.
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