Rush-hour traffic congestion has eased in the D.C. area as the result of this year’s swollen gas prices, but not as much as in most other cities, a new traffic study says.
The amount of extra time commuters spend on the roads due to traffic dropped 23 percent in the first half of 2008 compared to the same months in 2007, according to traffic data provider INRIX.
But that’s lower than the national average of 26 percent, despite a spike in gas prices in the Washington area greater than most other cities.
“Fuel prices had significantly higher influence on traffic in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami and Las Vegas than, surprisingly, in areas with heavy public transportation infrastructure, including New York City, D.C. and Chicago,” the study said.
The numbers mean that the overall time Washington drivers spend in their cars during rush hour has declined by 5 percent as some commuters elect to use public transit, carpool, or eliminate unnecessary trips, freeing up the roads.
The average commute in the Washington area was 33.4 minutes in 2007, the second longest in the nation, according to U.S. Census figures.
Census numbers are not available for 2008, but the INRIX data suggests that the average commute has dropped to 31.7 minutes.
“One of the things we’ve found from consumer surveys was while gas prices were fundamentally decreasing their amount of driving, a lot of that was around more discretionary driving,” INRIX senior director Ken Kranseler said. “People aren’t going on vacation as much, they’re not going on their weekend trips as much.”
Nationally, the largest drop in traffic has occurred on Friday afternoons, when the roads are typically overflowing with road-trippers, according to the study.
Drivers in smaller cities saw a larger drop in traffic than those in most major metropolitan areas, possibly because discretionary driving — trips to grocery stores, restaurants and weekend getaways — makes up a larger portion of their time on the roads, Kranseler said.
The study projects that congestion levels will remain lower in spite of normalizing gas prices because the weakened state of the economy will continue to deter discretionary spending.
INRIX used GPS to track 800,000 commercial vehicles for the first half of 2008 to collect data for the study.
