Traffic Jams Drive the Most Polluting Roads in America

TomTom and their TeleAtlas group just released a study that tied traffic jams to air pollution, to reveal the top polluting roadways in America. Sorry California, you're taking most of the top spots. The very obvious reality is that when you sit in traffic, you waste gas in the start and stop mode of inching down the highway. TomTom has a feedback mechanism in many of its GPS devices that allow it to gather anonymous data from your trips that reveal roads traveled and average speeds across those road segments. With a pile of data across millions of GPS devices they can create the historical profile of speeds on the road. Slow speed equates to more emissions.

So the study didn't appear to take into account any effect of a greener automobile fleet (there has to be more hybrids per capita in California), but I can't imagine that it can overcome the overwhelming mass of humanity that travel the highways in California.

It's Earth Day; how can you help?

The obvious thing is to either get a more efficient car, or skip the car ride; take the train, work from home a day a week, carpool, or ride a bike.

Avoid the traffic with a traffic enabled GPS. You could always time shift your commute, but that will only get you so far. Sometimes a traffic enabled GPS can alert you to the worst jams and offer a way around. I recommend a connected device that relies on anything but FM/RDS signals. You need secondary road coverage that the higher bandwidth offers in connected devices (mobile phone, "connected" GPS).

Use a regular GPS - studies have shown that using a GPS devices can save you time and money on the road by keeping you from getting lost. It's really pretty simple, but across millions of cars, it can make a difference.

The full information from TomTom is below after the jump and they list off the roadways and the methodology. Pretty interesting. Assuming that they mean I-93 south of Boston, I am not reassured that my commute is on their list. I think I am going to take the commuter rail today..... Update: Found out that the stretch in Mass is north of town Randolph to Reading. Good for me; the train is was great.

TomTom's Latest Traffic Study Reveals Most Polluting Roads in the United States

Data from GPS users give detailed view of the environmental and economical impact of carbon emissions from traffic jams on nation's primary and secondary roads

California roads have long been considered some of the most scenic, and congested, in the United States. A new study by location and navigation solutions leader TomTom gives them another distinction: the nation's most polluting.

The TomTom study shows the segments of roads on which vehicles produce the most carbon emissions, based on the length and time of average weekday traffic jams and the estimated number of vehicles in those jams. Of the top ten most polluting major, or interstate, roads in the country, seven are in California, including: I-5 South (#1); I 10 East (#2); I 405 South (#3); 60 East (#4); I 5 North (#6); 101 South (#8); and I 210 East (#9).

The results were calculated using data from Speed Profiles™, the historical speed database from TomTom's licensing business unit Tele Atlas that helps personal and professional fleet drivers find the best routes. Speed Profiles aggregates, anonymously and on an opt in basis, the actual speeds that millions of GPS-enabled drivers have traveled over the last two years, providing the most accurate view of historical traffic on both primary and secondary roads. It is incorporated on TomTom GPS devices as IQ Routes™ to guide drivers away from congestion, not only on major highways but on all routes in the road network.

The data give the clearest picture yet of the impact of traffic jams on the environment, and on drivers' wallets. Assumptions for carbon emissions and fuel consumption were based on relatively conservative calculations. TomTom's study calculated that one vehicle stuck in congestion emits .1 gallons of additional fuel per hour, based on stopping and starting vs. idling, and that one gallon of fuel costs on average $3.00. Congestion on the roads in the study generally lasted for two hours. Calculations for emissions were for weekdays, or 300 days of the year. Traffic jams were defined as such if drivers could travel at only 70% or less of the posted speed limit, meaning on average an hour long trip included 20 minutes or more of significant delays.

Key findings are:

* There are on average 120,000 cars stuck in traffic jams every day on the 170 mile section of California roads in the study.

* Of the top ten most polluted stretches of roads in the nation, only three are outside California. They are: I 95 South in Virginia (#5); I 93 North in Massachusetts (#7); and I 95 North in Connecticut (#10).

* Collectively, the ten most polluted road segments in the study produce 85,000 tons, or 170 million pounds, of carbon emissions every year. According to the carbon calculator from TerraPass, that's the equivalent carbon footprint of one person taking 116,000 round trip flights from Boston to Los Angeles. To negate the effects, you would have to plant nearly 100,000 square miles of artificial forest on land the size of the state of Colorado.

* The top ten most polluted major roads also have an impact on drivers' wallets. Cars sitting in congestion don't just idle but stop and start for extended periods, burning an additional .1 gallons of fuel per hour. At $3.00 per gallon, drivers sitting on these roads spend $30 million every year on wasted fuel.

* Although they have fewer lanes, secondary or non interstate roads can be equally pollution-producing. The top ten most polluted local roads are: California 1 from Malibu to Redondo Beach; Virginia 7, from Washington D.C. towards Leesburg; Pennsylvania 611; Illinois 64; Georgia 120, from Marietta heading West; New York 25 between East River and Forest Hills; New York 25 A from La Guardia Airport heading East; New York 25 from Jericho to South Huntington; Virginia 7, through Leesburg; and Oregon 99 West, near Portland.

"As we approach Earth Day, a day in which we celebrate the environment, it's incredible to see the impact of our daily commutes on the planet and ourselves," said Product Manager Nhai Cao. "With products like IQ Routes on TomTom devices, and the pedestrian-friendly TomTom for iPhone, we're proud to help people combat congestion, reduce the impact of their driving on the environment and save money."

April 22, 2010

Traffic Jams Drive the Most Polluting Roads in America