Goodbye, gridlock? Not quite. D.C. saw the country’s largest drop in congestion amid the pandemic, but the average driver still spent almost two days in traffic, analytics company INRIX says. News4’s Traffic Reporter Melissa Mollet explains.
Do the streets around Washington, D.C., still seem quiet, even as people head back to their offices?
D.C. had the largest decline in congestion of any U.S. metro area during the pandemic, but the average driver still spent nearly two days stuck in traffic in 2021, according to INRIX, a transportation analytics company.
Congestion was 65% below what we were dealing with in 2019, before COVID-19 pushed people to work from home and commuting cratered, INRIX said.
Trips to downtown D.C. are still down by 38%, INRIX said.
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Commuting hasn't bounced back to 2019 levels yet, but anyone driving over the past year wasn’t spared from traffic jams.
INRIX estimates the average commuter in the D.C. area lost 44 hours sitting in traffic this year.
That is significantly less than the 124 hours lost in 2019, but more than the national average of 36 hours.
Transportation
Reporter Adam Tuss and the News4 team are covering you down on the roads and in transit.
D.C. now ranks 13th in the country for hours lost in traffic, INRIX says.
