Boston drivers wasted 50 hours in traffic in 2020, despite pandemic

Boston-area drivers had the second-longest average wait time in traffic out of large U.S. cities in 2020, at 50 hours per driver over the year, according to a new study released by Texas A&M University’s Transportation Institute.

This represents a drop of 42% from the previous year, when Boston drivers wasted 86 hours in traffic, and had the sixth-longest average wait time. This saved Boston drivers almost an hour a week.

“The underlying elements of traffic problems — too many car trips, too much rush-hour roadwork, crashes, stalled vehicles and weather issues — have not receded,” Tim Lomax, one of the report’s authors, said in a statement. “What’s different is that those elements have been eclipsed by plummeting traffic volume.”

Only the New York metropolitan area had worse traffic congestion than Boston, at 56 hours in 2020. Rounding out the top five were Houston at 49 hours, San Francisco and Los Angeles at 46 hours, and Washington, D.C., at 42 hours.

“Things didn’t, I guess, get better in Boston as they did in some other areas,” said Senior Research Scientist David Schrank, who co-authored the study.

Schrank attributed Boston’s congestion partially to its transit reliance, which also explains why New York was the most congested city. He said that those cities experienced a rush of new drivers to the road as the pandemic took hold, causing delays.

He also blamed Boston’s traffic issues on its large, densely packed population. During the pandemic, online orders of goods soared, only increasing truck traffic.

Boston’s large medical industry, narrow roads and reliance on “arterial streets” instead of highways also likely contribute to Boston’s traffic problem, according to Schrank.

Anecdotally, Schrank said, congestion is already just about back to pre-pandemic levels. Boston, however, could be poised for a traffic overhaul if it took even 10% of cars off the road.

“Boston, with such an information-and-knowledge-type of workforce, probably has the opportunity to make more use of telework,” he said.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3dtWBGh