New statistics show more people are on the roads in the D.C. area than before the pandemic. News4’s Adam Tuss reports.
New statistics show something many D.C. drivers already know: Traffic is back to pre-pandemic levels — and even a bit worse.
"Traffic in the area — yes, it is back," commuter Nabil Niori told News4.
"The pandemic was great, because there was no traffic. But we are back to the full levels of traffic. I spend all day driving around from appointment to appointment so I feel it in full effect," commuter Carl Bruce said.
Traffic is up 0.4% in the D.C. area compared with pre-pandemic levels, according to the transportation analytics firm StreetLight Data.
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Experts say one reason for the increase is more people decided to drive during the pandemic and have since stuck with that habit.
"And some people switched from riding Metro or riding the VRE and MARC train in Maryland — they switched to driving because they could," said Ralph Buehler, a professor of urban affairs at the Virginia Tech Research Center.
Metro, MARC and VRE ridership are still down compared to before the pandemic.
Transportation
Reporter Adam Tuss and the News4 team are covering you down on the roads and in transit.
Carpools are also down. Transurban, the operator of the Express Lanes along the Beltway and I-95 in Northern Virginia is seeing more single occupancy trips.
"Our traffic numbers have rebounded for the most part since COVID. Particularly on the 495, it was lagging a little bit behind, but we're back up to those pre-COVID and sometimes exceeding those pre-COVID numbers," said Jacqueline Woodbridge, with Transurban.
But it could be worse. StreetLight Data found that average daily vehicle miles increased 12.3% across the 100 largest metro areas in the country, Axios reported.
