The coronavirus pandemic emptied the streets and highways of the Big Apple, offering motorists temporary relief from congestion.
But traffic has returned and congestion appears to have worsened in New York City, even outpacing the busy streets of Los Angeles, according to a study by the University of Texas Transportation Institute.
Of the top 15 US cities surveyed, New York was the worst last year. The average commuter lost 56 hours stuck in traffic, the study found. In Los Angeles, an average of 46 hours were spent sitting in the middle of congestion.
But those 56 hours are a huge improvement over pre-pandemic levels. The study found that it was only 58 percent of the time lost by motorists in 2019.
“Congestion was reduced in 2020,” the report says.
Traffic in 2020 was like having four different years of traffic rolled into one, the institution noted in a press release.
In January and February, things were very similar to the previous year. From March to May, the pandemic shutdown “produced scenes on the roads that have not been seen since George HW Bush was president,” the report says.
From June to August, when some rush hour traffic returned, the delay conditions approached normal rates and remained that way until the end of the year.
Nationwide, passenger traffic in 2020 was cut by almost half compared to the previous year.
“The underlying elements of the traffic problems – too many car trips, too many rush hour roadworks, crashes, paralyzed vehicles and weather problems – have not receded,” said Tim Lomax, one of the report’s authors, in the statement. press.
“What’s different is that those elements have been overshadowed by the drop in traffic volume.”
Los Angeles had been at the top of the list for several years.
Going forward, we don’t expect to see the same trends starting in 2020. Traffic across the country has mostly returned to pre-pandemic levels, the report’s authors said, citing Texas as an example.
“Congestion levels in Texas and much of the rest of the country have recovered to near-pandemic levels,” Marc Williams, executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, said in the news release.
“In Texas, we continue to see the same underlying causes – a growing population and economy that are producing more passenger vehicle and truck traffic on highways across the state.”
– .
