Department of Transportation





		by Robert J. Ravelli Assistant Deputy Mayor for Transportation continued from page one Most notably, Philadelphia has followed America into an integrated world economy. In their search for a competitive edge local businesses must realize that traffic congestion carries both tangible and intangible costs. According to the Texas Transportation Institute, Philadelphia's traffic congestion costs every employer $690 per employee in lost time. Plus there are the non-trivial costs of acquiring, building and maintaining employee parking lots - often a necessity and often a very poor return on investment. No one to date has calculated the transaction costs imposed by the delayed deliveries of materials to manufacturing and service businesses, but they are undoubtedly real, with a regional impact. Add to that the cost of lower employee productivity caused by the frustrations of commuting by car and you have a price tag worthy of management attention. The main environmental fact we must confront is that we have an air pollution problem in the region, something we can't wish away. The numbers speak for themselves: Every year cars and trucks burden our local air with an additional 99 tons of volatile organic compounds, 133 tons of nitrogen oxides and 269 tons of carbon monoxide yearly, mainly from cars and trucks, according to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. The principal contaminant is ground-level ozone, the product of sunlight acting on vehicle exhaust. Traffic congestion adds to ozone pollution because gasoline and diesel engines don't run efficiently when vehicles are idling or crawling along. We had a forceful demonstration of how pervasive ozone pollution is during July's heat wave with daily media alerts about excessive ozone levels. Besides posing a health hazard to many - including children and the elderly - ozone detracts from the quality of life for all of us in the Delaware Valley. But how will we meet those challenges? The one thing we are least likely to do is build our way out of the problem. Since the Vine Street Expressway opened in 1991, no new highway projects have been proposed within the city limits and none will be on the drawing board any time soon. Lacking that option, Philadelphia must manage its traffic congestion aggressively with a program that opens up transportation options for the city's working population while taking account of the differences between parts of the city. Thus the Mobility Alternatives Program (MAP), which stresses different means of transportation and distributing the demand on our roads throughout the day. Simply put, MAP aims to help both employers and employees with a single source to find ways to abandon one-worker, one-car commuting. Techniques range from transit to telecommuting. more...