Sprawl Crawl

The Texas Transportation Institute's TTI congestion index just doesn't add up. Defining congestion as the ratio of peak to free-flow travel times is a benchmark that promotes raw mobility rather than accessibility.

'Driven Apart,' a report by CEOs for Cities, uses an alternative approach that measures congestion with trip distance and total travel time metrics. Cities that come out on the top: New York, Chicago, Philly; At the bottom: Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville.