San Francisco commuters are losing more time to traffic
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Traffic on Highway 101. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
You're not imagining things if it feels like the commute in San Francisco is getting worse and the windows to avoid traffic are shrinking.
Why it matters: Traffic congestion is not only lost time, money and fuel, but it can also raise stress and impact mental and physical health.
- Blood pressure can go up just from sitting in traffic, not from aggravation, but from the air pollution inhaled.
The big picture: Peak-time drivers in the San Francisco area lost 45 hours to congestion in 2023, up 5 hours from 2022, according to the annual INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard released this week.
What they did: The report uses data from 300 million vehicles and devices globally to analyze metrics, including delays, speeds at peak times versus low-traffic periods, and the time it takes to get to and from major employment centers.
State of play: INRIX reported that San Francisco had the 13th-worst traffic delays in the U.S. and the 65th-worst among 947 urban areas analyzed worldwide in the report.
Yes, but: SF traffic is still below pre-COVID levels, down 6% from 2019.
- The region's relatively high percentage of remote and hybrid workers means it's taken a bit longer in some cases to get workers back into their offices, but they're getting back on the roads now, the study's author Bob Pishue told The Seattle Times.
Zoom out: The typical U.S. driver lost 42 hours to traffic congestion last year, the equivalent of a full work week, per the report.
- Congestion cost the U.S. more than $70.4 billion in lost productivity last year, a 15% increase from 2022, per the report.
- While transit ridership grew 15% over 2022 in the U.S., it remains down 28% from 2019 levels, the analysis found.
What they're saying: The study's author, Bob Pishue, told David Welch of San Francisco's KCBS that while people dislike congestion, it's actually "the movement of goods and people around the region" and a sign that the metro area is slowly getting back to normal.
The intrigue: INRIX says midday is the "new normal" rush hour nationally, with more people hitting the road between 10am and 4pm than between 6am–10am.