Fuel Savings from Attempts to Alleviate Traffic Congestion

Despite the news that traffic congestion wasted nearly 2.9 billion gallons of fuel in 2011, fuel savings were achieved due to efforts to combat congestion. According to the Texas Transportation Institute, public transportation was responsible for a savings of 450 million gallons of fuel in 2011. High-occupancy vehicle lanes, combined with other operational treatments, contributed another 194 million gallons to fuel savings. Operational treatments include the coordination of traffic signals, freeway ramp metering, freeway incident management, and arterial street access management.