Think about this the next time you’re waiting in traffic: the nation’s leading transportation research group has reported that the annual traffic delay per traveler in 2003 was 49 hours in Connecticut, New York, and Northern New Jersey. That is more than two and a half times the 18 hours we waited in traffic in 1982.

That is just over two days of your time lost, either at work or at home; two days of gasoline burned and tailpipe emissions spewed into our air for naught; two days of pumping up your blood pressure. Add up the wasted hours, the wasted energy, and all the commuters who just feel wasted at the end of the day, and it amounts to a heavy tax on the good life in Connecticut.

Economists and state traffic planners have also concluded that traffic congestion levies a heavy tax on the state’s economic future. R. Nelson Griebel, chairman of the state Transportation Strategy Board, noted this week, “Where the most serious daily congestion exists is where economic growth is threatened.”

The most serious congestion, as we all know, is along I-95 in Fairfield County and along parts of Interstates 91 and 84 — especially the 32-mile stretch of I-84 that flanks Newtown, east and west, between Waterbury and the New York State border. We hope anyone considering Newtown as a site for commercial relocation or expansion doesn’t try to get here during rush hour, otherwise this town’s initiatives for economic development may just run out of gas somewhere out on the highway.

Gov M. Jodi Rell has proposed more than $1 billion for a ten-year plan to ease traffic in the most congested areas of the state. While state lawmakers failed to take up the plan before their regular session ended last week, they will be back in a special session later this month when they are expected to approve the plan. These funds, when combined with even more highway funds from the federal government, will pay for the $600 million project to add a third lane in both directions on I-84 from Danbury to Waterbury and to make improvements to the exits, including all three exits in Newtown.

There may be some political mileage in this for the governor and state lawmakers, but area commuters should not expect any relief this year, next year, or any of the next 15 to 20 years. The state Department of Transportation’s director of planning told a public information meeting in Southbury last month that there is currently no timetable for the work to begin, and once the project does start it will take ten to 15 years to complete.

State initiatives to reinforce and expand the state’s anemic public transportation network, to develop and promote Connecticut’s commuter and freight rail lines, and the implementation of smart growth policies that provide incentives for more high-density commercial and residential development around public transit stations may help — but only if there is enough political fortitude in Hartford to see them through. 

 According to state DOT’s own projections, between now and 2025, when the orange cones may start to appear along I-84, traffic volume on the interstate will increase from 67,000–116,000 vehicles daily to 83,000–158,000 vehicles daily. By then, we will be spending more than five days each year waiting in traffic — and that’s only if our current transportation initiatives are successful. Let’s hope we don’t fail.