If your drive to work seems to be taking longer than it did a couple years ago, it’s no illusion.
By John Goodwin
Published: July, 2006
If your drive to work seems to be taking longer than it did a couple years ago, it’s no illusion.
Fueled in part by an expanding regional economy that spurred the creation of some 26,000 jobs in 2005, traffic congestion on Bay Area freeways increased last year at the fastest rate since 2000, according to the latest congestion-monitoring data released in late June by Caltrans and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC).
The daily number of vehicle hours of delay due to congestion in the nine-county region rose by 9 percent in 2005, following a modest 2 percent bump in 2004 and steady declines in congestion from 2001 through 2003. 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 seemingly perennial hold on the top spot in 2005 with an average 10,930 daily vehicle hours of delay.
Beyond the overall increase, what really stands out is that the worst of the congestion is concentrated in a few familiar places, observed MTC Chair Jon Rubin, noting that nine of the freeway segments on the annual list of the Bay Area’s Top 10 Traffic Hot Spots shared the same dubious distinction in 2004 as well.
The only newcomer to the Top 10 is the eastbound afternoon commute along State Route 4 from Bailey Road in Pittsburg to the A Street/Lone Tree Way exit in Antioch.
Regionwide, the congestion data show that on a typical weekday, vehicles spent about 135,700 hours in congested conditions (defined as average speeds below 35 miles per hour for 15 minutes or longer) on Bay Area freeways in 2005. While this marks a 9 percent increase over 2004 figures, it remains well below the 177,600 hours per day recorded in 2000 at the height of the region’s technology-charged economic boom.
For the second consecutive year, the Bay Bridge and its approaches account for three of the Bay Area’s 10 worst congestion locations, including the morning approach along westbound I-80 (a segment that also carries traffic bound for eastbound I-580 and southbound I-880), the eastbound afternoon commute across the span (number 10) and the afternoon approach on eastbound I-80 and northbound U.S. 101 in San Francisco (number 4).
Other familiar segments on the most-congested list can be found along I-580 in Alameda County. The afternoon drive from the I-680 junction east to El Charro Road ranked number two on the 2005 list while the morning drive westbound from Flynn Road at the top of the Altamont Pass to Airway Boulevard in Livermore came in third. These segments swapped positions from the 2004 list.
The I-580 corridor ranks near the top of the congestion charts year after year, and the new data shows it’s getting worse, said Alameda County Supervisor and MTC Commissioner Scott Haggerty, who has been a leader in the formation of the Port to Port Coalition, which is advocating for roadway improvements and capacity expansion along the freeway routes between the Port of Oakland and the Port of Stockton.
Noting the $20 billion transportation infrastructure bond on the upcoming November statewide ballot, Haggerty said, The proposed I-bond includes $4.5 billion for a Corridor Mobility Program and another $2 billion to improve goods movement. I hope the new congestion numbers will be a wake-up call for voters as they consider the bond package this November.
At the county level, the biggest overall increase in freeway congestion in 2005 occurred in Contra Costa County, where daily vehicle hours of delay grew by just over 3,000 to 21,600.
The biggest percentage increases came in Sonoma and Marin counties. Daily vehicle hours of delay jumped by more than a third in Sonoma County, to 7,100 in 2005 from 5,300 the year before. Marin County showed a 32 percent surge in congestion in 2005, and smaller percentage increases were registered in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties.
