The Miami Herald recently published a story by Texas A&M University's Transportation Institute who reported that the Urban Mobility Report for 2012 issued its annual report showing the region of Broward, Miami/Dade, and Palm Beach counties as having a rating of eleventh of the fifteen worst traffic congestion for urban areas.
The Urban Mobility Report reviewed the traffic patterns and conditions across America's suburbs and cities to try and quantify the volume of traffic congestion in the different regions in order to give researchers a method of measuring how unreliable calculating the time required to make a particular trip.
The Miami Herald recently published a story by Texas A&M University's Transportation Institute who reported that the Urban Mobility Report for 2012 issued its annual report showing the region of Broward, Miami/Dade, and Palm Beach counties as having a rating of eleventh of the fifteen worst traffic congestion for urban areas. The Urban Mobility Report reviewed the traffic patterns and conditions across America's suburbs and cities to try and quantify the volume of traffic congestion in the different regions in order to give researchers a method of measuring how unreliable calculating the time required to make a particular trip.
The areas in the U.S. that have worse traffic congestion than South Florida, according to the report were, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, New York-Newark, San Francisco-Oakland, Huston, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle and Philadelphia. This is also the first time the report has included the PTI or Planning Time Index, which is what is used to measure how much extra time motorist need to arrive at a particular destination. According to the report, "If the PTI for a particular trip is 3.00, a traveler would allow 60 minutes for a trip that typically takes 20 minutes when few cars are on the road."
The 2012 Urban Mobility Report gave South Florida a PTI of 3.60, which corresponds to its worst traffic congestion rating of 11th. Most people who drive in traffic congestion daily view it as little more than an inconvenience, but it can and does lead to aggressive driving, recklessness and road rage, which some drivers at some point in their driving history have either experienced or been the victim of. In areas where the population was over 3 million, the report said that in 2011 many motorists spent at least 52 extra hours on the road, which was up from the average of 38 hours. In addition, most motorist have to plan for at least three times more travel time as they normally would to compensate for travel time lost due to bad weather, unexpected crashes, or special events.
Not only is Florida known as having the worst traffic in the U.S., it is also considered the worst states for pedestrians. Needless to say, Florida should do more to improve their traffic and safety laws. Because of more and more traffic and congestion, the less than perfect traffic safety laws, more time on the road and the tendency of Floridians to walk where they want to go, more residents are at an even greater risk of being injured or even killed due to a traffic accident. If you or someone you know has been involved or injured in a traffic accident, legal representation is vital to protect your rights to receive proper compensation.
