Utah County has 13 of the 25 most congested roads in the state, according to a new study -- and the top two congestion centers are on Interstate 15 in Orem.

"I was very surprised," said Provo-Orem Chamber of Commerce President Steve Densley, who attended a news conference Wednesday morning announcing the study.

"We're talking about a whole lot of counties in Utah. I thought Weber and Davis counties would have more. Utah County is the worst place in the world for traffic."

The study was performed by TRIP, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group. It ranked traffic snarls throughout the state based on hours lost to congestion, wasted gallons of fuel and congestion cost per motorist.

The worst traffic jams were found along the urbanizing Wasatch Front -- Salt Lake, Davis and Weber counties -- but Utah County dominated the list.

Both Salt Lake and Utah counties are asking voters for a quarter-cent sales tax increase Nov. 7 to raise money for transportation needs. In Utah County, the funds would expand some key roads and help pay for a commuter rail connection to Salt Lake City.

Local officials are supporting the increase vigorously, citing the region's increasing population and the fact that Interstate 15 will undergo reconstruction in coming years, and people will need transportation alternatives.

The study brings together statistics from a number of different sources and quantifies what everyone has experienced firsthand -- that it can be hard to drive from Point A to Point B.

That's an inconvenience, certainly, but out-of-control congestion has an economic impact, the study notes. There's wasted fuel, higher shipping costs, delays in shipping and delivery, and lost worker productivity. Congestion also fouls the air because it causes higher vehicle emissions.

Good transportation is also an economic development selling point.

"Corporations are not going to move to Utah County if it's going to be a nightmare to get their people to and from work, or to get their goods back and forth," Densley said.

From 1990 to 2004, Utah had the fourth-fastest growing rate of vehicle travel in the country. It increased to an estimated 25 billion miles of travel, up from 15 billion miles.

In that same period, Utah's population increased more than 40 percent, to 2.5 million people from 1.7 million. The population is expected to increase by another 1 million people by 2030.

The study recommends courses of action already being examined by the state -- expansion of roads, more mass transit options, and bicycle paths and sidewalks. Programs should also be introduced to encourage people to carpool or drive at non-peak times.

The news conference announcing the study was held at 8 a.m. in Salt Lake City and getting there Wednesday morning was "tough" because of a bad accident, said Densley: "The whole darn freeway was closed."

That points to what may be the root of Utah County's traffic woes -- there aren't many alternatives for the movement of large amounts of traffic.

If I-15 is slow, "what the heck do you do?" asked Densley. "State Street is there, but it's so congested. Geneva Road -- it's a two-lane highway that's pretty tough to get too many cars on.

"You just don't have the ability to move around in Utah County."

TRIP's study was based on data from the Federal Highway Administration, the Texas Transportation Institute, the Utah Department of Transportation, the Reason Foundation and the Urban Land Institute.

The entire document is available at www.tripnet.org.