Last month, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) unveiled its annual rankings of the Bay Area's most congested freeway segments.
By BC Staff
Published: January, 2016
Last month, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) unveiled its annual rankings of the Bay Area’s most congested freeway segments. The just-released data cover the year 2014.
The westbound morning commute along Interstate 80 from Hercules to Oakland regained its oft-held position as the region’s most notorious location for traffic trouble. The nearly 17-mile stretch from the State Route 4 interchange to the Bay Bridge toll plaza ranked number four on the regional congestion list for 2013.
The freeway congestion data is one of a suite of transportation indicators released as part of MTC’s web-based Vital Signs performance-monitoring initiative. Across the region, “congested delay” — which MTC defines as time spent in traffic moving at speeds of 35 miles per hour or less — ticked up three percent in 2014 to an average of 2.7 minutes per commuter each weekday from 2.6 minutes in 2013. This marks the Bay Area’s highest recorded level of congested delay on a per-commuter basis and a nearly 40 percent increase over the 1.9-minutes-per-commuter-per-day figure registered in 2010.
Freeway congestion around the Bay Area is increasing faster than either population or employment. Since 2000, per-commuter congested delay has risen by 23 percent while the region’s population has grown by 10 percent, and total regional employment at the end of 2014 was only about one percent higher than turn-of-the-century levels.
While the morning commute along westbound I-80 jumped three spots to number one on the Top 10 list — swapping positions with the eastbound afternoon drive on U.S. 101 and I-80 from I-280 in San Francisco out to the Bay Bridge — nine of the region’s 10 most congested freeway segments in 2014 ranked in the top 10 for 2013 as well. The only newcomer to the list is the morning commute along northbound U.S. 101 from Story Road in East San Jose to Montague Expressway in Santa Clara, which climbed to number 10 last year after ranking number 18 in 2013.
The remainder of the top 10 list includes: the morning drive on southbound I-880 from San Leandro to Milpitas, which retained its number two position; the afternoon commute on southbound U.S. 101 from Fair Oaks Avenue in Sunnyvale to Oakland Road in North San Jose, which ranked number three for the second year in a row; the afternoon crawl northbound on I-680 from San Ramon to Pleasant Hill, which held steady at number five; the northbound I-680 commute over the Sunol Grade from Mission Blvd. in Fremont to State Route 84 in Sunol, rising one spot to number six; the afternoon slog on eastbound I-80 from the Bay Bridge toll plaza area to Albany, which climbed one spot to number seven; the westbound morning commute on I-205 and I-580 over the Altamont Pass to Dublin, which dropped two spots to number eight from a year earlier; and the afternoon drive on eastbound State Route 24 from the I-580 interchange in Oakland through the Caldecott Tunnel to Orinda, which remained at number nine.
