Atlantans forced off road by gas prices

More than in any other metro area, Atlantans dropped their driving when gas got pricey this year, according to a new study.

The study, released Wednesday by the traffic technology company INRIX, followed how metro areas’ traffic congestion related to changes in gas prices. Of 100 U.S. metro areas, Atlanta came out on top of the list, with the closest statistical link between rising gas prices and dropping congestion. That may be a result of driving less, said officials at INRIX, though the data can’t prove that one caused the other.

For the first time in decades, however, federal data does show that Americans are driving significantly less.

INRIX tracks traffic congestion by collecting speed data from cars’ GPS devices and the location of cell phones on the roads. INRIX says that in Atlanta, a driver with a 30-minute commute could save 10 hours a year with the new decrease in driving.

But Georgia also had the bottom spot on the study’s list. Augusta came out 100th with gas prices and congestion both on the increase. Construction could be one of the factors causing the congestion, said Bryan Mistele, CEO of INRIX, like construction.

Many metro areas, such as New York, apparently didn’t react at all to gas prices.

INRIX’s study didn’t directly track the overall economy, and transportation officials say that when the economy starts to sour people may travel less, bunching errands into one trip, for example.

But the INRIX study did track gas prices against how much income people spent on transportation, said Scott Sedlik, vice president of product marketing for INRIX. And after analyzing more than a dozen possible causes, Mistele said, gas prices made the strongest showing in the data.

“Certainly what we’ve seen is the obvious, which is that fuel prices have a significant impact on traffic congestion,” Mistele said. “People do care about gas prices and do change their behavior.”