Rides : 1.9 Billion Gallons of Fuel Wasted by U.S. Drivers in Traffic Congestion

A recent study made by the U.S. Treasury Department shows that traffic congestion wasted 1.9 billion gallons of fuel in 2011, almost 5% of the gas used by the American drivers and a loss of $7 billion nationwide.

The study also shows that Americans lose about 5 billion hours in traffic, which means a loss of billions of dollars in productivity. The cost of poor quality roads, meanwhile, results in about $400 in added yearly maintenance costs for the typical urban driver.
The report offers exact information such as the fact that 9 out of 10 Americans spend $1 out of every $7 they earn on transportation, an annual $85 billion over the next 20 years need to be spent to fix the U.S. bridge and roadway infrastructure, and that the States spend less on transportation infrastructure than the majority of other major economies, such as Britain and Germany.
The Obama Administration hopes that this report will convince the House of Representatives’ members to act on the federal highway bill that has been stalled on Capitol Hill. The study shows that the total cost in time and money works out to about $100 billion a year.