Driving speeds have increased dramatically across the U.S., thanks to pandemic-related travel restrictions.
As rush hours all but disappeared in major U.S. cities last month, travel speeds on major roadways rose dramatically during Friday evening and morning commutes, according to data from Inrix, a Kirkland, Wash.-based traffic analytics company. Traffic subsided in stages as states and cities ratcheted up restrictions on nonessential travel.
“New York City, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Boston were the leading indicators,” said Trevor Reed, a transportation analyst at Inrix, “but the trend line is now being matched by basically every major city in the country.” Inrix uses data gathered from cellphones and car navigation systems to measure travel speeds. In the Seattle area, morning commute speeds were 15% higher than normal on March 13 and 23% higher a week later. Evening commuter accelerated even more, with gains of 16% on March 13 and 38% a week later.
The largest gains, perhaps not surprisingly, were in cities with the worst congestion. In Los Angeles, commute speeds on March 20 jumped 75% above normal. Cities in states that were slower to impose restrictions—Florida, Texas, and Georgia—were later to see speeds rise. “There were laggards,” Reed said, “but now that we’re four weeks into this crisis, there’s been convergence.”
The decline in traffic, while one of many signs of the economic calamity caused by the coronavirus, brings some welcome benefits. “You don’t realize how noisy roads are until they go quiet,” Reed said. “The same goes with air pollution. A lot of people are experiencing clean air for the first time.” The respite also provides an opening for much-needed maintenance and construction on transportation infrastructure. In Beverly Hills, for instance, the shutdown has allowed the city to close roads and accelerate the construction of a subway line.