Any Way You Measure It, DC Region Still Ranks High for Congestion

 Year after year it seems that no matter how different studies measure traffic congestion, our region still manages to have some of the most congested roads in the country. And the latest study, which seems quite innovative, is no exception. The makers of the TomTom GPS device aggregated the actual speeds of millions of their GPS enabled drivers over the last two years. Using the results they ranked cities according to how fast cars could travel on the street network (GPS Users Reveal Which US Cities Are Truly The Most Congested, December 2, 2009, TomTom Press Release).

A city's traffic was defined as congested if drivers could travel at only 70% or less of the posted speed limit, meaning on average, an hour long commute included 20 minutes or more of significant delays. The results tracked the TomTom drivers actual average speeds for every five minutes of the day on roads across the full network of roads in a region. They said this contrasts with traditional traffic studies that use a sampling from a limited number of road sensors on primary roads. 

 The results show that Seattle, Washington has the most congested streets with an average of 43% of its roads showing heavy delays. Five of the thirty most congested cities are right here in the Washington, D.C. region with Montgomery County coming in at number 4 with 37% of its roads showing heavy delays. 

The "most congested "corridor" is between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. with about 36% of that area's roads congested. In discussing the results in a podcast on the TomTom web site, their study people said that they found it interesting that a number of large counties outside the major cities turned up as some of the most congested places. Of course anyone from our area already knows this is so. Its often easier to move around the urban core than in places like Tysons or Montgomery County. This is happening nationally as well. So without further fanfare here's the TomTom list of most congested cities: 

1. Seattle, Wa. 43%
2. Los Angeles, Calif. 38%
3. Chicago, Ill. 37%
4. Montgomery County, Md. 37%
5. San Francisco, Calif. 35%
6. New York, N.Y. 31%
7. Washington, D.C. 30%
8. San Jose, Calif. 29%
9. Alexandria, Va. 28%
10. Oakland, Calif. (Alameda County) 28%
11. Atlanta, Ga. (Cobb County) 27%
12. Boston, MA 27%
13. Fairfax County, Va. 26%
14. Philadelphia, Pa. 25%
15. Austin, Texas 25%
16. Phoenix, Ariz. 25%
17. Long Island, N.Y. (Nassau County) 24%
18. San Juan, Puerto Rico 24%
19. Portland, Ore. 23%
20. Houston, Texas 23%
21. Contra Costa County, Calif. 23%
22. Arlington, Va. 23%
23. Orange County, Calif. 20%
24. New Orleans, La. 20%
25. Norfolk County, Mass. 20%
26. Denver, Colo. 20%
27. Morris County, N.J. 20%
28. Miami-Dade, Fa. 20%
29. Dallas, Texas 20%
30. Charlottesville, Va. 19%

I'm sure we'll be reporting on our region being at the top of another list very soon.

Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Transportation Bureau Chief for Arlington County in the Department of Environmental Services, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a Metro/biking commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.

Comments

[Jane Hudson]

Excellent read, sad but true... One way that I'm tying to combat the issue is with my new service -commuterswap.net. I'm a local Washingtonian whose battled driving endless miles to work over many years. Commuter Swap was born out of my frustration with daily traffic woes. Commuter Swap creates win-win relationships between homeowners in different locations by facilitating a swap of their homes so they are closer to their job. It's an economically and environmentally friendlier way to get to work. Not to mention a healthier way too.