Brake lights could be proof that the Bay Area economy has begun to bounce back from the high-tech meltdown of recent years. Traffic congestion on Bay Area freeways increased last year for the first time since 2000, according to the latest congestion-monitoring data released by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Caltrans District 4.
Published: March, 2006
Morning Commute Along I-80 Still Most Congested Freeway Segment
Brake lights could be proof that the Bay Area economy has begun to bounce back from the high-tech meltdown of recent years. Traffic congestion on Bay Area freeways increased last year for the first time since 2000, according to the latest congestion-monitoring data released by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Caltrans District 4.
The daily number of vehicle hours of delay due to congestion in the nine-county region rose by 2-percent in 2004, after dropping 18-percent in 2003, 5-percent in 2002 and 12-percent in 2001. Among the Top 10 list of Bay Area congestion hot spots, the morning commute along westbound Interstate 80 from Hercules to the Bay Bridge retained its longtime hold on the top spot in 2004 with an average 10,080 daily vehicle hours of delay.
The congestion statistics are part of the Bay Area Transportation: State of the System 2005 project spearheaded by MTC and Caltrans. This annual initiative tracks the performance of the region’s transportation system and the condition of its facilities.
The increase in congestion largely reflects a general uptick in the Bay Area economy in 2004, said MTC Chair Jon Rubin. A brighter employment picture put more workers onto Bay Area freeways.
The overall increase in Bay Area traffic congestion was accompanied by a fresh shakeup in the annual list of the Bay Area’s top 10 traffic hot spots. While the morning approach to the Bay Bridge on Interstate 80 remained the region’s most notorious congestion location in 2004—with daily vehicle hours of delay up a whopping 53-percent from 6,570 hours in 2003—one commute returned to the top 10 list after a lengthy absence and three moved into the top 10 for the first time.
Three of the Bay Area’s 10 worst congestion locations now involve the Bay Bridge, including the morning approach along westbound Interstate 80 (a segment that also carries traffic bound for eastbound Interstate 580 and southbound Interstate 880), the eastbound afternoon commute across the span and the afternoon approach on eastbound Interstate 80 and northbound U.S. 101 in San Francisco (number 4).
Due to the fact that the congestion decline is reversing in the Bay Area, we need to manage our regional system more efficiently through intelligent transportation system (ITS) strategies, said MTC Commissioner and Caltrans District 4 Director Bijan Sartipi. ITS improvements include ramp metering, changeable message signs with accurate travel times, FasTrakTM, carpooling and transit interconnectivity, as well as mechanisms—such as the 511 traveler information system—that help the public make informed travel decisions.
Regionwide, the congestion data show that vehicles typically spent 124,190 hours per weekday in congested conditions (defined as average speeds below 35 miles per hour for 15 minutes or longer) on Bay Area freeways in 2004. While this marks a 2-percent increase over 2003 figures, it is far below the 177,600 hours per day recorded in 2000 at the height of the region’s technology-charged economic boom.
Report Tracks Travel Safety & Pavement Condition
Fatal/Injury Crashes Fall for Fourth Straight Year
he Bay Area is steadily becoming a safer place for motorists and pedestrians alike. Across the nine-county region, the number of reported auto and truck collisions that resulted in death or injury—and the number of motor vehicle collisions involving pedestrians—dropped for the fourth straight year in 2004. The number of injury/fatal motor vehicle collisions fell by 5-percent to just under 34,000, while the number of collisions involving pedestrians dipped by 3-percent to fewer than 2,800. And while the number of auto/bicyclist accidents involving injuries rose 5-percent last year to nearly 2,400, this figure is still 16-percent below the 2000 tally.
These statistics and dozens of other key indicators can be found in Bay Area Transportation: State of the System 2005, a digest of data on the performance of the region’s transportation network and facilities produced annually by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Caltrans District 4. In addition to safety statistics and the 2004 freeway congestion data (see adjacent story), the State of the System 2005 report features previously unreleased data about pavement conditions, transit ridership and reliability, measures of air travel and goods movement, and much more.
Using easy-to-understand tables, graphs and maps, State of the System 2005 details and briefly comments on how the Bay Area transportation network performed in 2004 (the last full year for which data are available), and discusses trends going back up to five years. Taken together, the many pieces of data paint a comprehensive picture of the state of transportation throughout the region.
The State of the System 2005 report’s assessment of pavement conditions on local streets and roads includes a ranking of Bay Area cities and counties based on each jurisdiction’s pavement condition index (PCI) score. MTC uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure pavement quality and assigns a very good rating for PCI scores of 75 or higher. Not surprisingly, the best pavement conditions typically are found in newer communities where streets and roads have not yet been subjected to decades of weather and heavy traffic. Topping the Bay Area pavement rankings for 2004 was the eastern Contra Costa County city of Brentwood, which registered an average PCI score of 87. The lowest-rated streets and roads were found in unincorporated Sonoma County, which had a poor pavement rating and an average PCI score of 44.
Due to a new stream of revenue from the Measure M transportation sales tax approved by Sonoma County voters in Nov. 2004, motorists from Sea Ranch to Sears Point can look forward to significant investment in pavement upgrades during the months ahead. Expenditure plans for the transportation sales taxes approved in 2004 by voters in Contra Costa, Marin and San Mateo counties made local street and road maintenance a high priority as well. A half-cent transportation sales tax being considered for the June 2006 ballot in Napa County also would direct much of the new revenue to local streets and roads.
State of the System 2005 can be found on the MTC Website at: www.mtc.ca.gov.
Report Now Available
For a printed version of the complete State of the System 2005 report, contact the MTC Library:
library@mtc.ca.gov
Tel. (510) 817-5836
