🔒CT takes steps to address gridlock problem

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State Department of Transportation spokesman Kevin Nursick understands Americans' fascination with their cars.

“The freedom that the automobile provides is part of Americana,” he said. “It's a mindset that's pretty entrenched.” But increasingly in Connecticut and nationwide that freedom is coming at a price: traffic congestion.

In fact, according to two recently-released reports, Connecticut has among the worst traffic congestion in the country. According to the Urban Mobility Scorecard, a report released by the Texas A & M Transportation Institute and traffic monitoring firm INRIX, Hartford was the fifth most congested medium-sized city in the U.S., with drivers spending an average of 45 hours a year in traffic delays; New Haven ranked 11th, accounting for roughly 40 hours spent in congestion. Additionally, a report from TRIP, a Washington, D.C.-based national transportation organization that tracks both congestion and conditions of America's interstate highway system, found Connecticut ranked eighth nationally for traffic congestion, with more than 60 percent of its interstates classified as congested.

And that congestion comes at a price, with traffic collectively costing Americans more than $124 billion a year, which is expected to increase by more than 50 percent — to $186 billion — by 2030, according to the Center for Economics and Business.

In part, crowded highways — in Connecticut and nationwide — are due to over usage of the interstate system. While interstate highways represent only 2.5 percent of lane miles in the U.S., they carry 25 percent of the nation's vehicle travel. In Connecticut, the root cause of congestion, Nursick contends, is two-fold. “One challenge is that in previous years, there's been underinvestment in infrastructure,” he said. “The other is the number of single-occupancy vehicles during peak commute times.”

Connecticut is working to address both challenges and with good reason. According to the TRIP report, 14 percent of the state's interstate highways are in poor or mediocre condition, compared to 12 percent nationally. And 7 percent of Connecticut's bridges are structurally deficient, more than twice the national average of 3 percent. Currently, the state is in the early phases of a 30-year, $100 billion initiative — “Let's Go Connecticut” — to improve and in some cases widen major statewide arteries.

But Nursick says improving congestion also requires a cultural shift in the commuting mentality. He points to the latest census data showing that nearly 80 percent of Connecticut workers — or roughly 1.4 million people a day — drive alone to work, while 5 percent use mass transit and 8 percent rely on carpooling, a number the state wants to increase, and has been investing the resources to do so.

“We have a substantial program called CTrides, which is designed to encourage employees to commute to work any way other than driving alone,” said Jim Stutz, transportation supervising planner for the state Department of Transportation, who helps manage CTrides' business partnerships. “We currently have 393 employers working with us to promote carpooling.”

Margaret Romaniello, who manages the Hartford branch of the Internal Revenue Service, started partnering with CTrides in 2014, when the IRS moved its Wethersfield employees to Hartford as part of a consolidation. “I knew the move would be difficult for some employees who drove because there is no free parking in Hartford,” Romaniello said. “So I wanted to educate colleagues about commuter options.”

That's involved hosting several promotional exhibit events with CTrides personnel who, Romaniello says, can show employees individualized carpooling or mass-transit commuting options. Like many CTrides partners, the IRS offers small incentives — from raffle prizes to free bus passes — to encourage employees to start trying public transportation. “If people can try it, even once or twice a week, that's what I encourage,” Romaniello said. “People need to get past the need to have a car.”

And while they may represent a fraction of the total commuting population in Connecticut, the number of state residents leaving their cars behind for their commute has grown, says Russell McDermott, program manager of CTrides. McDermott is quick to point out that the program, which was founded in 2005, has grown most substantially since the introduction in 2011 of NU Rides, the state's transportation incentive program, which offers a range of prizes, including gift certificates to retailers statewide, in exchange for members' using and tracking carpooling or mass-transit usage.

Last year, the program eclipsed the 40,000 member mark and has since its inception provided more than $1 million in prizes. But the return on investment has been substantial. Since 2005, according to CTrides statistics, the program has helped save more than $89 million in commuting costs, conserved nearly 7.5 million gallons of gas, and prevented more than 73,000 tons of emissions that would have been caused by solo commuters.

Nursick and Stutz are encouraged by those numbers but know the ultimate solution to traffic congestion won't only come from wider highways, but from shifting a well-ingrained mindset about commuting.

Slowly the state's efforts are finding converts like that IRS's Romaniello, who sees not only the cost savings of alternative approaches but the mental benefits of having someone else take the wheel.

“I do my best to avoid driving to work now,” she said.