Gridlock Guy: Atlanta traffic study shows way more than the headlines say
Few things in the news cycle make me more skeptical than traffic studies. And this skepticism is not normally directed at the studies themselves but how they’re interpreted.
A recent Texas A&M study grabbed headlines because of media and social media misunderstanding what it said about Atlanta. But this study is very worthwhile.
Atlanta’s traffic is some of the worst in the nation, but the delays added during an average rush hour are not as profound, the annual Texas A&M Transportation Institute Urban Mobility Report said. Some outlets confused Atlanta trends with the nationwide patterns the study found.
Thursday is now the worst traffic day in the United States, the data showed. Friday, particularly afternoons, had been the worst. Work patterns have influenced that shift, the report’s senior research scientist, David Schrank, explained.
“Because of hybrid work, we think, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday have climbed in, in the amount of delay,” Schrank said.
My anecdotal observations as a weekday traffic reporter backed this up over the last decade and certainly post-COVID: More people are taking longer weekends or choosing Monday or Friday as teleworking days.
Atlanta now has its heaviest traffic in the 4 and 5 p.m. hours on Wednesday, according to the study. (Many of the outlets that reported on the study said it was Thursday, but that was the national trend, not local.)
As for the idea that rush hours are less than they were: It’s complicated. The study shows that U.S. drivers are commuting in greater numbers and spread out over more hours. This dilutes the peaks or deltas that routine morning and afternoon drive times once held.
Some construed this finding to mean that traditional rush hours were over. That is, very simply, not true and certainly not so in Atlanta.
Metro Atlanta easily saw the most delays — measured in this study as the percentage of roads that experienced congestion — from 7 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 7 p.m. on weekdays. Sounds like rush hours, right?
But the study does show both Atlanta and many other of the 101 urban areas the institute studied have more traffic in off-peak hours. “You’re going into the office on those days, but you may not go in until after the traffic kind of quiets down a little bit,” Schrank said.
Given more information (mainly through GPS apps) and flexibility, many drivers are more productive by steering away from peak drive times. That adjustment lessens but does not eliminate the curve.
Atlanta drivers certainly are filling the roads at these off or nonpeak hours, as they sat in an average of 87 hours of delay each last year. That is the ninth-worst in the U.S., behind the staggering 137 hours that Los Angeles drivers lost.
As to how Texas A&M collects this data — Schrank said that has evolved over the 40 years of this study. Scientists used to take physical traffic counts over certain roadways and then extrapolate that data. Now, connected technology over the last 15-20 years has made the research far more voluminous and precise.
“The largest contributor (to this data) now is your automobile. Any automobile after I think it’s 2018 or something like that has the data that is being pinged up to satellites,” Schrank said, noting that people often opt in to sharing this information when they sign to buy cars. “A lot of vehicles out there every three seconds send a ping to a satellite.”
Atlanta may be ninth or 19th worst in traffic jams … or 90th. That matters very little to a single driver. The worst traffic jam in the world is the one you are in right now. And, thankfully, there are teams dedicated to trying to understand drivers’ habits — and very precisely at that.
Doug Turnbull covers the traffic/transportation beat for WXIA-TV (11Alive). His reports appear on the 11Alive Morning News from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and on 11Alive.com. Email Doug at dturnbull@11alive.com.
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