On some days, it may feel like traffic is returning to pre-pandemic levels on streets around the Seattle area. But the 2021 Global Traffic Scorecard from Kirkland, Wash.-based INRIX shows the region and other parts of the country are still far from normal when it comes to congestion.
Almost two years since the start of the worldwide health crisis sent many people home to do their jobs or into quarantine, remote work is still having an impact on how much time we’re spending sitting in traffic. Major employers in the Seattle region, including Amazon and Microsoft, have repeatedly push back and altered plans for when employees might return to offices.
But some economic recovery and return to business as “sort of normal” managed to clog up roads more than in 2020, but not back to 2019 levels.
According to the report released Monday, Seattle ranked 21st in the U.S. this year in time lost to congestion at 30 hours lost for the average driver. INRIX, a traffic technology and data company, says that that amount of time is 59% less than pre-COVID levels, but that it still costs each driver $470 and the city $730 million. The city was ranked 15th in 2020.
The average American driver lost 36 hours due to congestion in 2021, a 10-hour increase from 2020 yet 63 hours below pre-pandemic levels. Chicago (104 hours), New York (102 hours) and Philadelphia (90 hours) lost the most time to traffic congestion.
Downtown areas continued to see significant reductions in trips. Seattle saw a 36% decrease this year, INRIX found, compared to the national average of -22%. Cities such as San Francisco (-49%), Detroit (-41%), and Washington, D.C. (-38%) recorded the highest drop-offs, while places such as San Antonio (-5%), Tampa (-6%) and Phoenix (-7%) were closer to pre-COVID levels.
INRIX also reported that recreational cycling grew in many cities, but there was a decrease in the number of people commuting by bike as employees worked from home or suffered job loss.
Seattle also made the list of the top 25 worst traffic corridors in the U.S. The section of Interstate-5 north from Northgate Way to 128th Street had a peak hour delay of 11 minutes at 4 p.m. and cost the average driver 45 hours in 2021. A section of I-5 in Los Angeles topped the list at 22 minutes delay and 89 total hours lost, and California accounted for a third of the corridors on the dreaded list.
