![]() The second-biggest use of time depended on whom you asked. They spend some of that time sleeping in, walking their dogs and, of course, baking.īut the same commuter survey found the main thing people did with the hours they got back was work more - respondents estimated they spend 35% of that time doing their primary jobs. In the Bay Area, many workers have gotten hundreds of hours of their lives back over the past year. That added up to more than 9 billion hours saved in the first six months of the pandemic. The massive expansion of remote work forced by the pandemic saved commuters nationwide an estimated 60 million hours per day, according to a survey conducted by researchers from Stanford, the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México and the University of Chicago. INRIX’s analysts found car volume on Highway 101 between Sunnyvale and San Jose is down about 40%, double the decline in traffic on busy freeways in San Francisco and the East Bay. It’s a different story on the Bay Bridge, where the tolls record more than 100,000 cars on a typical weekday now, about 85% of the volume they saw before the pandemic. The San Mateo-Hayward Bridge gets about two-thirds as many cars. The Dumbarton Bridge, which touches down near the Facebook campus in Menlo Park, now typically sees less than 25,000 cars pass through its toll plaza each weekday - about 60% of pre-pandemic levels. With a glut of white-collar, telecommute-friendly jobs, remote work still seems to be especially strong in Silicon Valley. The Bay Area’s tech firms were among the first big employers to tell workers to stay home last March. ![]() Silicon Valley traffic is especially light Throughout the pandemic, travel to parks is down by less than 10%. The number of trips to parks throughout those five counties surged above pre-pandemic levels from June through August, before receding again. Google found travel to parks, like travel everywhere else, fell during the lockdowns - but when restrictions eased last summer, people rushed to get outside. ![]() So where are people going? Try your local park. The decline is even more severe in the region’s former job powerhouse, San Francisco, where 55% fewer people have been going to workplaces in recent months. There has been a large and sustained drop in travel to workplaces, which according to mobility data tracked by Google, is down by 45% across Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. Downtowns are ghost towns - but parks are popular ![]() Compare that to before the pandemic, when the corridor was considered congested for three hours each morning. However, many afternoon commutes are still lighter for many, with Bay Bridge speeds averaging 34% faster, leaving San Francisco.Along another notorious freeway, westbound Interstate 80 from Highway 4 in Martinez to the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza, traffic these days never gets bad enough to hit the “congestion” stage, with speeds slowing to a low point of 40 miles per hour during a brief morning rush. During rush hour, drivers congest the bridge, and morning travel speeds are 32% slower than four years ago, according to congestion data tracking speeds from Treasure Island to the Fremont Street exit in San Francisco. Although overall bridge traffic is still down approximately 10% compared to 2019, morning commutes from Oakland to San Francisco are often worse than before the pandemic. ![]() One of the most high-profile examples of this situation is the Bay Bridge. But we're at capacity." The solution to this resurgent congestion may be the least popular idea yet: make it even more expensive to commute by car. It might not be the exact same times, in the same circumstances. Radio stations constantly update listeners on traffic jams, with the MacArthur Maze being a mess, I-880 a slog, and 101 a zoo.Īccording to Bayen, who studies traffic patterns, the situation seems paradoxical. BART's ridership has dropped by 60% after many passengers abandoned the system three years ago and never returned.Įven though remote work has caused a significant shift in travel patterns, and taxpayers have spent billions of dollars on alternative transportation systems, freeways are congested again. The once bustling downtown offices in the Bay Area filled with techies and lawyers are now empty. CEE Professor Alex Bayen was recently featured in a transportation segment piece from The Mercury News discussing freeway congestion on the Bay Bridge and potential solutions. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |