Texas rush hour traffic among nation's worst

A more positive light on the congestion dilemma is that cities seeing the highest growth in traffic delays are also those experiencing great population spurts. The problem is that government planners haven't kept pace with highway expansions and other more innovative projects to mitigate increased congestion.

"As long as the economy is good, congestion tends to increase," Lomax said in the report. "More subdivisions, offices and plants get built, and transportation always lags somewhat."

While the study relied on 2005 data and doesn't measure the more recent explosive growth in the state's largest cities, the increase in the amount of time drivers spent idling in traffic over a 10-year period is staggering.

For its jam-packed arteries, Dallas-Fort Worth ranked fifth among the 437 urban areas studied but number one in Texas. Rush-hour motorists spend about 58 hours a year sitting in traffic, compared to 34 hours in 1995, earning Dallas a congestion index of 1.35. This figure means a rush-hour trip takes 35 times longer than the same trek during off-peak hours.

"The Dallas-Fort Worth region has become one massive area," Schrank wrote. "Not that long ago, it was a series of individual communities, but now its just one endless city."

Houston ranked seventh in the nation for peak-hour traffic delays averaging 56 hours, up from 32 hours in 1995, garnering the city a 1.36 congestion index.

Austin's rush-hour congestion placed the city in the unlucky 13th spot, with drivers wasting about 49 hours in traffic, compared to 32 hours ten years ago, giving it a 1.31 congestion index.

After Austin, the next highest ranking city in the state was San Antonio at 39th, scoring a congestion index of 1.23. Alamo city drivers averaged 39 hours in peak-hour traffic, up from 19 in 1995.

There is no single solution to traffic delays, the study concluded. But cities must do what Dallas, Austin and Houston are doing to solve their traffic problems by employing a variety of methods.

"The solution to this problem is really to consider all the solutions," Schrank said in the report. "One lesson from more than 20 years of mobility studies is that congestion relief is not just a matter of highway and transit agencies building big projects."

New roadway construction is underway in all of the state's major metro areas, but cities also have implemented other measures to get more out of their road capacity.

Houston has ramp metering to control freeway access and incident management to get stalls and wrecks cleared quickly. San Antonio has a high-tech traffic management system called TransGuide, which uses cameras, fiber-optic cables and electronic message boards to notify drivers of traffic jams and assist workers in rapidly clearing out accidents.

In recent years, the Dallas-Fort Worth area has added high-occupancy vehicle lanes, more Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) light-rail lines and major new highways in the Bush Turnpike and the expanded North Central Expressway.

But if there's any consolation to Texas drivers, their long waits in traffic pale in comparison to Los Angeles, where delays averaged 72 hours, and San Francisco, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., where delays lasted 60 hours.