You have likely been affected by or at least heard about supply chain disruptions, which, reportedly, “do not just create higher prices and shortages among high-end consumer products, such as cars. They also affect more-basic commodities such as generic drugs or energy, increasing the cost of living and the provision of basic needs.”
Disruptions are caused by various things, including traffic congestion. A new study by the American Transportation Research Institute shows Dallas roads playing a fairly significant role in bottlenecks on major thoroughfares. Specifically — and anyone who faces driving around Dallas will be unsurprised here — I-635 at US 75 and I-45 at I-30.
So while we are not as bad as Houston, Dallas is contributing to the fact that Texas leads the nation in bottlenecks.
The two Dallas interchanges, one on the north end of town at the infamous High Five and the other at the southern side of the city, which which our Oak Cliff readers are most familiar, rank No. 8 and 54 on the top 100 congested locations in the country and No.s 2 and 9 out of Texas’ locations on the list. Ten of the 14 Texas hotspots are in Houston.
Texas Trucking Association President and CEO John D. Esparza says, while “Texas is used to ranking #1,” he’s not proud of our state’s position on the list.
“Bottlenecks around the state continue to waste time and money, further damaging the already fragile supply chain. With the newly available federal resources for infrastructure projects, there is no excuse – these bottlenecks must be addressed. A reliable and stable transportation network is essential to our economy – just like the trucking industry.”
The impetus for publishing this list is to “provide a roadmap for federal and state administrators responsible for prioritizing infrastructure investments throughout the country,” according to American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear.
“Every year, ATRI’s list highlights the dire needs for modernizing and improving our roads and bridges,” he says. “We have seen, most recently in Pittsburgh (referring to the bridge collapse), that the cost of doing nothing could also cost lives. It’s time to fund these projects and get our supply chains moving again.”
The 2022 Top Truck Bottleneck List measures the level of truck-involved congestion at over 300 locations on the national highway system, according to the researchers at ATRI.
The analysis, based on truck GPS data from over 1 million freight trucks uses several customized software applications and analysis methods, along with terabytes of data from trucking operations to produce a congestion impact ranking for each location.
ATRI’s truck GPS data is also used to support the U.S. DOT’s Freight Mobility Initiative. The bottleneck locations detailed in this latest ATRI list represent the top 100 congested locations, although ATRI continuously monitors more than 300 freight-critical locations.