Your evening commute in Seattle is the second worst in the country
Mar 22, 2016, 11:43 AM | Updated: Mar 23, 2016, 8:05 am
Data released by TomTom shows Seattle drivers have the second-worst evening commute. (Stephanie Klein/MyNorthwest)
(Stephanie Klein/MyNorthwest)
If you thought your commute home in the evening seemed extraordinarily long you weren’t imagining it.
Data released by TomTom shows that Seattle traffic for rush-hour evening commutes has the second worst congestion in the country.
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The city’s traffic caused a 31 percent increase in extra travel time in 2015, according to the study.
Travel times in the evening drastically increase, especially Wednesdays and Thursdays, according to the report. Extra travel times can see an increase in excess of between 70-80 percent.
The added congestion adds 39 minutes of travel times per day and 148 hours per year.
According to the data, Los Angeles has the worst evening commute. There is a 41-percent increase in extra travel time, which is an increase of 2 percent over 2014.
Seattle tied for fourth when it comes to overall congestion. The city fell behind Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.
The data should come as no surprise to anyone who has had to fight through traffic around the city. A study by Kirkland-based INRIX found that Seattle drivers waste upwards of 60 hours in traffic.
Studies have shown that Seattle’s congestion can be, at least partly, contributed to its geography. The limited number of crossings over waterways play a factor, and the city’s hourglass shape doesn’t help much, either.
