The Texas A&M Transportation Institute recently released its periodic report on urban mobility.
When we completed our initial review of the report, we found that Raleigh continued to score remarkably well. Among the 47 very large and large urban areas across the US surveyed in the report, Raleigh and Richmond essentially tied for the lowest annual congestion per commuter, at 42 hours per year. We also had the third-lowest travel time index — which compares peak to free flow travel conditions to give a sense of how severe peak congestion is — with only Memphis and Richmond scoring lower.
Our average congestion value of 42 hours in Raleigh compares favorably with other metro areas including San Jose (94), Washington, DC (90 hours), Atlanta and Seattle (both 87), Nashville (83), Houston (77), Phoenix (76), Dallas/Fort Worth (69), and Austin, Charlotte, and Tampa (all 64). Durham’s value of 51 hours is also quite favorable.
Raleigh also had the lowest value among all very large and large urban areas surveyed for annual person-hours of truck delay (988).
New this year, the report offers measures of access, which they describe as policy neutral, since they evaluate how much of a metro area a commuter can reach in 30 minutes and how far they actually travel for those trips.
We may offer additional perspectives on this report in the coming days and weeks. For now, it is a good reminder of the quality of our metropolitan roadway network and travel experience, and also a reminder that ongoing population growth will make it increasingly challenging to maintain that travel experience without sustained, purposeful, multimodal investments.
Let’s get moving,
Joe
