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.
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