A new report shows that traffic in Houston and Austin is worse than the Dallas area.
DALLAS – North Texas continues to get more awards and population – and traffic too.
According to the Urban Mobility Report 2021 by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute in partnership with INRIX, the Dallas area rose to 8th place on the list of urban areas for worst traffic in 2020 due to an important measure related to the extra time a commuter has to endure.
This is compared to 16th place in 2019 for the local region.
The New York area took first place in 2020, followed by the Boston Metro. The Houston area, which was ranked higher than the Dallas area in 2019, shot up to 3rd place. The largest Californian metros – Los Angeles and San Francisco – ranked 4th. 6.
Austin, while not one of the largest subway areas, came in 7th. That is up from 12th.
CONNECTED: Traffic in the Dallas area is getting busier amid the changes brought about by COVID-19
The new report, released late last month, examines traffic in an extremely unusual pattern shift amid the challenges of COVID-19 and local restrictions across the country. There were essentially four “unique congestion years rolled into one” in 2020, including the pre-pandemic period, the post-pandemic period, an initial recovery, and a more normal fall period.
“Annual congestion costs and travel delays in 2020 were about half of the 2019 problem – total congestion delay was like 1997, more than two decades ago,” the report said. “The cost per commuter in constant 2020 dollars was less than 1982.”
However, despite the dramatic decline in congestion levels in 2020, trends in the final months of 2020 point to a return of congestion problems in 2021, the report said. For the Dallas area, other data suggests that the area has seen more traffic in recent months.
While North Texas slipped its rankings in 2020, it was still slightly better than the average among very large urban areas or those with more than 3 million people. The average in 2019 for annual delay per commuter was 84 hours, down to 41 hours in 2020 based on 2019 drivers. The Dallas area was 40. Houston was 49. Austin was 41.
[ad_1]
