Motorists in the nation’s cities spent millions more hours trapped in traffic in 2003, a report issued Monday by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University says.

The problems are getting worse, the report says, because urban areas aren’t keeping up with the growing number of travelers.

The report says congestion delayed travelers 79 million more hours and wasted 69 million more gallons of fuel in 2003 than in 2002.

Overall in 2003, motorists were delayed for 3.7 billion hours and wasted 2.3 billion gallons of fuel, adding up to $63 billion wasted dollars.

In fast-growing Austin, the average peak-hour traveler was delayed by eleven hours a year in 1982.

The new report says that delay increased to 51 hours in 2003.

Report co-author Tim Lomax says Austin didn't add transportation capacity in the '80s or '90s.

“If you don't build it, they won't come' philosophy didn't work,” he said.

The report was released as the U.S. Senate resumed debate on a
$284 billion highway bill, but transportation experts estimate the government would have to spend up to 400 billion dollars on highways to solve traffic jam problems.

"There is no single solution that can reverse the growth in congestion" Lomax said.

"The deliberations in Congress, decisions by state and local elected officials, the results of voter initiatives last fall, and our research findings recognize that reality," he added.

Dallas and Houston are among seven major cities where the annual delay per rush-hour traveler actually went down slightly.

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AVERAGE TRAFFIC DELAYS
(Source: Texas Transportation Institute)

Los Angeles
2003/93
2002/98

San Francisco
2003/72
2002/75

Washington, D.C.
2003/69
2002/66

Atlanta
2003/67
2002/64

Houston
2003/63
2002/65

Dallas
2003/60
2002/61

Chicago
2003/58
2002/55

Detroit
2003/57
2002/54

Boston
2003/51
2002/48

Miami
2003/51
2002/53

New York
2003/49
2002/50

Phoenix
2003/49
2002/49

Philadelphia
2003/38
2002/40