Raleigh, Durham drivers spend less time sitting in traffic than national average
Triangle traffic has rebounded after the pandemic lull.
Major delays along roadways like I-440 and Glenwood Avenue come to mind when thinking about the post-COVID commute. At times earlier this month, traffic sat at a standstill for almost 30 minutes.
While that is a hassle, new data showed we’re faring much better than people all over the country.
Drivers in the U.S. “lost” an average of 51 hours sitting in traffic last year. That rate is about three and a half times what drivers in Raleigh and Durham see, losing 14 and 16 hours annually.
Drivers in Charlotte and Richmond are wasting almost one and a half times as much time in traffic as we are here, spending 25 and 23 hours in congestion every year. Chicago ranks at the top city in the country. Drivers there are losing 155 hours a year.
This is according to the Global Traffic Scorecard released by INRIX, a data and analytics firm that specializes in transportation. Using GPS, cell phone, vehicle and city sources, they are able to calculate how long people are just sitting and waiting, stuck in bumper-to bumper-traffic.
Raleigh and Durham could be because the percent of overall population who drive alone to work here is slightly lower than the national average, according to Census data.
As the saying goes – time is money. The report looks at the cost of congestion, as well.
"Traffic congestion occurs when demand for roadway travel exceeds the supply of roadways," the authors of the INRIX traffic scorecard wrote. "As vehicular traffic builds, drivers, freight movers and bus riders lose time and spend fuel unproductively. That “lost time” has a value that we analyze."
In the Triangle, it ranges $243 to $263 per driver. Nationwide, the average is $869.
