A Growing Problem

Last week I drove to Washington D.C. from New York. The traffic was out of control.  I left Thursday late morning, well after the morning rush hour. Getting out of the Bronx and across the George Washington Bridge took much longer than expected because of traffic. There were no accidents or construction projects. The delays were merely a result of the volume of cars on the road. Later that day further south, traffic caused us to be further delayed on the I-495 Beltway around D.C. Again, no accidents or construction, just volume. Not only have I ranted before about the poor condition of much of the this country’s roads and infrastructure, but I am now convinced that the current infrastructure is severely inadequate to handle a growing population that will undoubtedly result in additional cars on the road. Largely due to immigration, the United States is one of the few industrialized countries in the world with a steadily increasing and not steadily declining population. But more people could equal more potential problems in the future, not just fiscally, but in the time simply needed to travel from point A to point B. I doubt the U.S. traffic will ever rival some cities of the world (e.g. Bangkok), but traffic problems will be an ever-growing problem in the future with no easy fix. All we can do is try to reduce the amount of pollutants traffic causes while increasing mass transportaion options. We can also be thankful for the freedom we have to travel when and where we want in the U.S. of A.