When I woke up last Monday morning and learned of the possible government shutdown, my immediate thought was, “What will be the impact on the traffic?”
A tad insensitive I know, but that’s how my mind works. Weather, holidays, school breaks, government shutdowns, my first reaction is how is this going to impact traffic.
That first Monday morning rush hour of the shut down I thought we’d see a decrease in traffic. We didn’t. I learned later in the morning that soon-to-be furloughed workers still had to report to work that Monday morning to get their affairs settled and to take home any personal items that they might need.
That explained why we didn’t see a lighter than normal commute.
Surely then Tuesday morning would bring a better drive to work with tens of thousands of government workers not on the roads. Well, not exactly. If traffic was better, it was only slightly so. There was certainly no noticeable decrease of gridlock on the roads.
Wednesday and Thursday showed the same. Maybe a slight decrease in traffic volume, but not enough for the average commuter to notice. Friday morning’s drive was much lighter than normal, but generally speaking the Friday morning drive to work is the easiest commute of the week.
I wasn’t the only traffic reporter to notice the minimal change in driving patterns.
“I don’t know that we saw a whole lot of difference,” said Captain Herb Emory traffic reporter for NewsTalk WSB and WSB-TV. “Maybe a little, but not much.”
I truly had expected trip times to decrease significantly during the partial government shutdown. During Federal holidays, for example, traffic is noticeably lighter.
“We usually see that during a government holiday,” Emory said. “When banks and post offices are closed.”
Since the shutdown didn’t impact bank workers or postal employees, that could explain the minimum change on the roads.
The changes we did see, were slight.
“Maybe I-575 backed up at Towne Lake Parkway instead of Sixes Road.” Emory said. “But certainly not as big a difference as when it is a Federal holiday.”
While Captain Herb was monitoring your commute from the sky, I was in the traffic center talking to drivers out on the roads. As far as they were concerned, the only lighter than normal conditions they saw were around the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention campus. Which makes sense since some 6,000 to 9,000 workers at the CDC were furloughed last week.
The commute to the CDC might have been smoother, but according to Captain Herb, that was about it.
“I don’t know that I noticed any great difference in the traffic patterns on the rest of the freeways,” Emory said.
If the shutdown continues, should we see the interstates becoming lighter than normal?
I think what we saw last week, is what its going to be,” Emory said
The partial government shutdown, a financial burden for the workers impacted, and no silver lining for the rest of the commuting public.
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