Bay Area sees nation’s biggest traffic drop due to virus.
About half as many cars are on the roads
The Bay Area’s shelter-in-place order to contain the spread of COVID-19 has slashed car traffic more dramatically than any other major urban area in the country, new research shows.
The disappearance of the Bay Area’s fearsome congestion has been cutting smog and also could be helping keep supply chains strong: Trucks and the goods they haul are moving much faster than normal through our typically trafficchoked region.
According to the transportation research company INRIX, there were half as many cars on the road in the Bay Area on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week than there would be on a normal day.
The declines were nationwide, with 30% fewer cars on the road across the country Thursday and Friday. But that didn’t come close to matching the Bay Area, which saw a 50%
dip Wednesday, and 51% Thursday and Friday.
The Bay Area’s figures also outpaced other cities grappling with coronavirus outbreaks. INRIX’s data showed Seattle’s traffic began falling earlier than the Bay Area’s a couple of weeks ago, but by last week it was only down 29%. New York City had the second-biggest drop among the nation’s largest urban areas, with a 43% decline Thursday and Friday.
INRIX researchers noted that the Bay Area was the first region in the country to adopt strict shelter in place orders meant to stop the deadly virus’ spread and has put some of the tightest restrictions on travel.
They also found that commercial traffic, such as service vehicles and local deliveries, has fallen only about 10% nationwide, and that long-haul truck traffic has stayed flat — which is good news for keeping grocery store shelves fully stocked.
Another piece of research from the trucking industry found supplies are breezing through the busy freeways that usually slow them down in the Bay Area and nationwide, because so many other drivers are off the roads.
“What we are seeing is an unprecedented level of truck movement,” said Rebecca Brewster, president of the American Transportation Research Institute. “Not only are trucks continuing to move, but they are doing so at speeds well in excess of normal traffic patterns.”
Trucks typically crawl through Oakland’s MacArthur Maze at average speeds of around 10 mph during the afternoon rush and pretty much never reach speeds above 35 mph during daylight hours at the seemingly always-clogged interchange, according to the institute’s data from truck GPS systems. Last week, though, trucks averaged over 50 miles per hour for much of the day and never dipped below 40 going through the area.
Around the interchange of Interstates 880 and 238, trucks that normally slowed down to about 25 mph during peak times instead cruised by above 50 mph.