University of California Transportation Center

SUBURBAN traffic congestion has emerged as one of the most pressing problems in the transportation field today and, most probably, will hold center stage in the transportation policy arena for years to come. Most accounts link the suburbanization of congestion to the suburbanization of jobs during the 1980s.1 Indeed, recent surges in suburban office employment have fundamentally altered commuting patterns, giving rise to,far more cross-town, reverse-direction, and lateral travel movements than in years past. This dispersal of jobs and commuting has been a mixed blessing of sorts. While on theone hand it has relieved some downtowns of additional traffic and brought jobs closer to some suburbanites, on the other hand it has flooded many outlying thoroughfares with unprecedented volumes of traffic and seriously threatened the very quality of living that lured millions of Americans to the suburbs in the first place.