It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that with 26 million more people in the U.S. since 2005, aging roads are more crowded and additional time is required to reach destinations.
So Grumpy Editor notes that print and broadcast media late last week focused, often at length, on a report that growing urban population has boosted traffic congestion around the country and it is outpacing the nation’s ability to build infrastructure.
Among the nation’s worst traffic cities, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Houston and Riverside (Calif.) experienced population growth outpacing the national average of 0.7 percent last year, according to a report by Inrix, a Kirkland, Wash. company that analyzes travel data, and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, College Station, Texas.
U.S. population now stands at an estimated 321.2 million, according to the Census Bureau. This compares with 295.5 million 10 years ago.
Washington, D.C. tops the list of commuter gridlock, followed by Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.
Rush-hour congestion adds 82 hours annually to motorists’ average commute in Washington, 80 extra hours in Los Angeles, 78 hours in San Francisco and 74 hours in New York.
Average travel-time delay per commuter nationwide is more than twice what it was in 1982, while for cities with under 500,000 people, the problem is four times worse than in 1982, adds the report.
Traffic congestion findings are drawn from traffic speed data collected by Inrix, along with highway performance data from the Federal Highway Administration.
More congestion lies ahead. The report predicts by 2020 annual delay per commuter will rise to 47 hours from 42.
In case you missed these...
As the weekend neared, excited print/television/top-of the hour radio news, in following tropical storm Erika through the Caribbean, noted the likelihood of slamming Florida Sunday night or Monday as a hurricane. But on Saturday morning, the National Hurricane Center issued: “All coastal watches and warnings are discontinued” as Erika fizzled…Meanwhile, many editors missed an unusual atmospheric development over land far to the West on Tuesday when fierce winds brought a high, wide wall of thick dust to the Phoenix area. Wind was strong enough to topple a tractor-trailer. The Washington Post was alert on the event, noting “A mean and massive dust storm swallowed up parts of the Phoenix area on Tuesday.” NBC News also reported on the giant "duster," coupled with footage.
That word omitted again in a news story
“Illegal” was missing from this sentence from a Boston Globe story on Donald Trump’s Friday night appearance at a Norwood, Mass. campaign rally: “Some researchers have disputed Trump’s claims about immigrants and crime, arguing that immigrants, regardless of their status, are less likely than the native-born to commit serious felonies"...Earlier in the week in the aftermath of Trump ordering biased Jorge Ramos out of a news conference, the Los Angeles Times noted the Univision anchor "has been called the Spanish-language Walter Cronkite." And Juan Williams, yesterday on Fox News, repeated that description. Wait a minute. Unlike Ramos, viewers watching the CBS Evening News, anchored by Cronkite for 19 years, never got a clue as to which way the veteran newsman leaned politically.
No airstrikes against Islamic State camps
Washington Free Beacon writer Bill Gertz on Friday revealed the "Pentagon has not conducted airstrikes against an estimated 60 Islamic State (IS) training camps that are supplying thousands of fighters each month to the terror group, according to defense and intelligence officials"...Two U.S. servicemen killed in southern Afghanistan by a shooter in an Afghan uniform Wednesday originally were identified as NATO personnel. Thus, the incident didn't get much coverage in the U.S. The two were Air Force special operations troops identified as Capt. Matthew D. Roland, 27, and Staff Sgt. Forrest B. Sibley, 31...Long-time production by AM General of the military's famous vehicle, the Humvee, now goes to Wisconsin’s Oshkosh Corp. which won a contract that could be worth $30 billion or more to build nearly 50,000 vehicles over the next 25 years for the Army and another 5,500 for the Marine Corps.
Chopping due in ‘discover the forest’ PSAs
Enough, already! Listeners to a national morning radio news hour hear four or five public service announcements for the U.S. Forest Service, repeated daily (often the same PSA within minutes), promoting "discover the forest"...Chipotle Mexican grill plans a one-day hiring binge. It intends to sign up 4,000 workers in a single day, Sept. 9...American Journalism Review, founded as the Washington Journalism Review in 1977, is ending its online publication. AJR was produced by Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. Merrill College Dean Lucy Dalglish said, “Unfortunately, we are unable to provide the resources needed to keep AJR the vibrant, innovative online publication it deserves to be."
Summertime delicacy:
USA Today got to the meat of things with sizzling summer news on Wednesday with "13 ways to eat watermelon all day long."
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