The trucking industry and its customers are paying a high price for increasing highway congestion that shows no signs of improving

Across the nation, truckers are losing time and money because of traffic congestion. A maddening combination of road construction, accidents and too many vehicles squeezing through lane bottlenecks is frustrating drivers and pushing shipments behind schedule.

Part of this segment of I-40 in downtown Nashville ranked 24th in the congestion index developed as part of the American Transportation Research Institute’s 2009 Bottleneck Analysis of 100 Freight Significant Highway Locations, conducted in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration.

Government officials have reported that highway traffic is down because of the recession, but most truckers say they haven’t noticed. Add in problems resulting from an estimated $26 billion in road construction projects from federal economic stimulus spending, and you’ll find no shortage of on-the-road headaches.

Research reveals why road congestion has developed into such an aggravating situation for drivers. Over the past 20 years, travel has increased 72 percent in large metropolitan areas, while capacity on freeways and major streets has increased only 40 percent.

Annually, Americans spend a cumulative 4.2 billion hours, the equivalent of more than 400,000 years, stuck in traffic.

In a U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure report for the Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009, it was estimated that accidents and traffic delays cost Americans $365 billion annually, or $1,200 for every individual in the country.

Contributing to the congestion problem is the deteriorating state of roads and bridges. Almost 61,000 miles, or 37 percent, of total miles of the National Highway System are in poor or fair condition, according to the House report. More than 152,000 bridges — one in four — are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The number of miles traveled has increased three times as much as the number of lane-miles added.