Study: Gridlock costs Denver $38.5 billion a year
By Kevin Flynn 
| September 2, 2009 | 10:31 AM
The purple ring represents the area from which it takes 25 minutes to reach Coors Field downtown during congested traffic. The yellow ring is the additional area from which the driving time is 25 minutes during free-flow conditions. (Reason Foundation)
The Denver region will sacrifice as much as $38.5 billion a year in economic output if it fails to spend the money necessary to resolve traffic congestion, according to a study by the Reason Foundation of gridlock’s impact on economic growth.
In a study called “Gridlock and Growth: The Effect of Traffic Congestion on Regional Economic Performance,” the libertarian think tank based in California examined eight metropolitan areas, including Denver, and attempted to quantify the increase in economic production it says would result from improved mobility in free-flowing traffic conditions.
Of the eight regions, Denver had the second-biggest bang for the transportation buck, Reason reasoned. Investing at least $10 billion over the next 20 years, according to the study, would leverage up to $38.5 billion each year in added economic output — a ratio of 77-to-1.
Read the complete story at Kevin Flynn’s Inside Lane.
economy, gridlock, reason foundation, traffic
