congestion is a problem
and you probably won\u2019t even elicit a blink.
Americans know congestion is aw\ue001ul and
they\u2019re certainly not shy about complain-
ing about it. Any one o\ue001 us can rattle o\ue001\ue001 the
ways congestion \ue001rustrates our own lives,
but we\u2019re less likely to step back, add others\u2019
\ue001rustrations to our own, and consider the
\ue001ull extent o\ue001 the problem. Today commut-
ers, customers and businesses shape more
and more o\ue001 their activities around what
used to be considered just an everyday ir-
ritant. We know congestion is aw\ue001ul, but it
may be even worse than we realized.

During the past two decades congestion
has shot up over 200 percent nationwide.
The average American now spends 47 hours
a year stuck in congestion\u2014more than an
entire work week\u2014and it\u2019s much worse in
our big cities. In Los Angeles, the average

driver spends 93 hours\u2014more than two
work weeks\u2014stranded on the roads. Con-
gestion smothers well-established areas (it\u2019s
up 183 percent in Washington, D.C.) as well
as upstart ones (up 475 percent in Atlanta).

Congestion has gotten much worse in
areas where we expect it to be bad, but it\u2019s
also making li\ue001e increasing sluggish across
the nation, \ue001rom Portland to Austin to
Charlotte. Every major city, as well as many
that you might not consider \u201cmajor,\u201d has
a growing congestion problem. In 1983,
just one urbanized area experienced enough
congestion where the average driver in peak
hours spent more than 40 hours stuck in
tra\ue001\ue000c. By 2003, 25 urbanized areas reached
this threshold.

Naturally businesses want to cater to
their customers, but now all sorts o\ue001 busi-
nesses are \ue001orced to cater to congestion \ue000rst.
Blue collar plumbers and repairman try to
reach as many customers as possible but
congestion stands in their way. White collar
pro\ue001essionals, \ue001rom salespeople to realtors,

D.\ue000The\ue000Many\ue000Bene\ue001ts\ue000of\ue000Telecommuting
E.\ue000Coming\ue000to\ue000America?\ue000A\ue000Cautionary\ue000View\ue000on\ue000Importing\ue000London-Style\ue000Congestion\ue000Pricing
F.\ue000Virtual\ue000Exclusive\ue000Busways:\ue000Houston\ue000Leads\ue000the\ue000Way

\ue001ace similar headaches. Most o\ue001 us \ue000ght
congestion on our way to and \ue001rom work,
but these people do battle with it all day
long. Congestion makes it harder \ue001or would-
be buyers and sellers to connect and it also
shrinks labor pools.

Shrinking labor pools o\ue001ten hurt high-
tech, \ue000nancial, and other specialized opera-
tions most. According to a recent survey,
Silicon Valley \ue000nancial companies \ue000ngered
congestion as their number-one headache\u2014
even ahead o\ue001 longstanding business head-
aches like taxes, regulations, and health care
costs.

Employers who require workers with
specialized skills want to be able to draw
\ue001rom as large a labor pool as possible \ue001or,
unlike \ue001ast \ue001ood restaurants and certain
other businesses, they cannot just hire
whoever\u2019s nearby. Yet be\ue001ore they hire a
promising applicant, employers must be sure
that person can actually get to work reliably.
Congestion isn\u2019t just \ue001rustrating because it
slows us down. It\u2019s \ue001rustrating because \ue001rom
day-to-day we don\u2019t know how much it will
slow us down. This element o\ue001 unpredict-
ability wears on commuters and employers.

When Dell computers cited congestion
as a major \ue001actor in its decision to expand in
Nashville instead o\ue001 Austin, Texas learned
that transportation troubles can also push
businesses to other states. \u201cWe lost 10,000
jobs in one day,\u201d recalls Texas State Rep.
Mike Krusee, who has since helped Texas
embark upon our nation\u2019s most ambitious
congestion-cutting e\ue001\ue001ort.

Dell\u2019s decision shocked Texas into
making a commitment to improving mo-
bility, but most o\ue001 the rest o\ue001 the nation
continues to dawdle. Lawmakers o\ue001ten \ue001ail
to appreciate the mobility-congestion give-
and-take. Mobility gives economies vitality

that is gradually taken away by congestion.
When people, products, and ideas cannot
churn \ue001reely, an urban area becomes more
segregated. It behaves less like a dynamic
metropolis that draws on the talents o\ue001 all
its denizens and more like a collection o\ue001
isolated hamlets.

Reason Foundation has responded by
initiating the Mobility Project (see www.rea-
son.org/mobility), a long-term, nationwide
e\ue001\ue001ort to help stimulate urban economies by
improving mobility and cutting back con-
gestion. The Mobility Project incorporates
ideas \ue001rom a wide range o\ue001 scholars and
presents comprehensive policy recommenda-
tions that will help our cities realize their
\ue001ull potential.

Too o\ue001ten lawmakers and voters seem
resigned to mounting congestion. Indeed
\ue001ew metropolitan areas are actually intent
on cutting it back\u2014making a commitment
to slow congestion\u2019s growth is usually all
they hope to do. Yet congestion isn\u2019t like
gravity. It\u2019s not an unstoppable \ue001orce. Across
the world cities have adopted innova-
tions\u2014some small-scale, some large\u2014that
quell congestion. The trick is mustering the
political momentum necessary to cobble
these innovations together and reinvigorate
urban li\ue001e.

Reason Foundation is developing practi-
cal, cost-e\ue001\ue001ective solutions to tra\ue001\ue000c conges-
tion with the Galvin Mobility Project, a pol-
icy initiative that will signi\ue000cantly increase
our urban mobility through innovative engi-
neering, value pricing, public-private part-
nerships, and innovations in per\ue001ormance
and management. Under the leadership o\ue001
Reason\u2019s Director o\ue001 Transportation Studies
Robert Poole, Reason\u2019s original research is

Reason\u2019s Galvin Mobility Project is made possible
by the generous support o\ue001 Bob Galvin. Bob Galvin is
the \ue001ormer CEO and Chairman o\ue001 Motorola, where he
led the company through nearly three decades o\ue001 suc-
cess\ue001ul growth and renewal. He was instrumental in
implementing the Six Sigma quality system at Motoro-
la. In 2005, he was awarded the Vannevar Bush Award
\ue001or \u201chis visionary leadership to enhance U.S. innova-
tion, competitiveness, and excellence at the inter\ue001ace
o\ue001 science and technology with the Nation\u2019s industrial
enterprise. In the counsels o\ue001 government, industry, and
academe, he unsel\ue000shly gave the Nation the bene\ue000t o\ue001
his knowledge, experience and creative wisdom while
leading his company in its great contribution to the
computing and telecommunications trans\ue001ormation o\ue001
society.\u201d

Galvin: I try to think o\ue001 big subjects at least once
in a while and I was thinking o\ue001 the jobs situation in
America. And even though there\u2019s pretty good em-
ployment now there are challenges to having enough
jobs in America. To me whenever there\u2019s a need you
have to have a strategy. A strategy is an application o\ue001
resources and I thought we need some new strategies
in the United States in order to have employment op-
portunities. And two o\ue001 those things I thought o\ue001 were
there has to be a reliable energy system and the other
is we have to eliminate congestion. And I was thinking
o\ue001 it as a convenience and in the middle o\ue001 my thinking
I said wait a minute\u2014congestion is the same thing as
an arterial problem in the body. And i\ue001 it gets clogged,
it dies. And all o\ue001 a sudden I came to a conclusion that
i\ue001 major cities have not awakened to the \ue001act that they
have to eliminate congestion, the cities will die.

Galvin: Nobody will be able to get around. It\u2019s the
same reason the heart dies. The artery gets clogged.
The delivery can\u2019t be made to the stores, to the \ue001acto-
ries. People can\u2019t get out and around. They can\u2019t get to
work. They haven\u2019t got fexibility.

Galvin: I expect it to achieve a recognition o\ue001 the
principle I just described. And then someone asks,
\u201cWell, what do you do about it?\u201d Well you have to

have arteries. You put in more blood vessels and those blood vessels will come in two \ue001orms that are not cur- rently very apparent. One is tunnels and the other is bridges.

Galvin: Most leaders are not good anticipators. I\u2019ve known lots and lots and lots o\ue001 leaders and particularly those that are allegedly infuential in Washington and they\u2019re ossi\ue000ed.

Galvin: I think we have a chance to change it,
but on its own it\u2019s not changing. Over the years I\u2019ve
watched the ordinary thinking o\ue001 the people who had
titles and they were just doing ordinary things. They
were never attempting to anticipate the grand situa-
tion. What we have to have is a passion. This isn\u2019t just
another lane on the highway or a little better timing
o\ue001 lights or a picking up o\ue001 accidents \ue001aster. Those are
what I call the \u201cart o\ue001 the possible.\u201d And that\u2019s what
most leaders do; they just deal with the art o\ue001 the pos-
sible.

But that\u2019s not real leadership. A leader is someone who takes us elsewhere and I think my thesis will take people elsewhere i\ue001 they\u2019ll \ue001ollow it.

Few government o\ue001\ue000cials talk about actually cutting
congestion. Most just hope to reduce congestion\u2019s
rate o\ue001 growth. Why have Americans accepted this
surrender?

Galvin: I think they\u2019re accepting it unconsciously, reluctantly because they assume nothing can be done about it. I\ue001 we awaken the world, i\ue001 we eliminate the problem, imagine what we will do to the dynamics o\ue001 the economy.

Galvin: That has been the nature o\ue001 my li\ue001e. That\u2019s
what this is all about. I\ue001 there is a big problem you have
to do something about it. That means, \ue001or example, you
have to start building tunnels.

France, Australia and other nations have embraced
tunneling and other innovative ideas more than we
have. How will that a\ue001\ue001ect our competitiveness?

Galvin: I hope it inspires us. The Europeans are
way ahead o\ue001 us. The awakening has to come \ue001rom our
group. We are the alarm clock.