August 20, 2024
Newly released Congestion data from INRIX shows that from 2011 to 2023, there was a 4.3% decline in freeway reliability in the region. This means more unpredicted delays. Explore the congestion data in this #TrackingTuesday.
It's hard to plan a trip when you have no idea how long it will take. Travelers want reliable travel times from one day to the next. The same peak hours generally occur every weekday, but on any given day, unusual circumstances like crashes, weather, construction activity, or special events can dramatically change the performance of the roadway. This is referred to as nonrecurring congestion. Data collected by the Federal Highway Administration indicates that nonrecurring congestion actually accounts for more hours of delay than the everyday (recurring) congestion that results from road capacity constraints and heavy volumes. A reliable network may still have congestion in peak periods, but such congestion will be easier to predict—ensuring the region's residents and goods get to where they are expected to be when they are expected to be there.
Connections 2050, DVRPC’s regional Long-Range Plan, aims to ensure the region has a safe and efficient transportation network. Decreasing congestion helps enhance goods movement, increase access to jobs for the region’s residents, increase mobility and reliability, improve air quality, and potentially reduce vehicle miles traveled and related greenhouse gas emissions.
This Tracking Progress update aligns the congestion indicator with the Federal Highway Administration’s Transportation Performance Management (TPM) metrics. These metrics include travel time reliability on the National Highway System, truck travel time reliability on the Interstate System, and annual hours of peak-hour excessive delay in the region’s urbanized areas. If a segment of roadway is considered reliable, motorists can reasonably expect to estimate how long it would take to drive that segment of roadway on a consistent basis. Truck travel time reliability measures how consistent travel times are on interstates. Annual hours of peak-hour excessive delay is the average number of hours per year spent by motorists driving in congestion during peak periods.
Levels of congestion in the region have nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels.
- There was a minor increase in the region’s highway Planning Time Index (PTI) values from 2011 (1.36) to 2023 (1.42), indicating 4.3% less highway reliability based on PTI. On local roads, PTI slightly increased to 1.26 in 2023, from 1.25 in 2022, but remained below their 2015 peak of 1.39.
- In 2023, the Philadelphia, PA-NJ-DE-MD Urban Area had 13.9 annual hours of peak hours of excessive delay (AHPHED) per capita, which is lower than the 2018 peak of 16.6. The Trenton, NJ Urban Area had a new peak with 4.4 AHPHED per capita.
- In 2023, 81.0% of the region’s roadways had reliable travel conditions. This performance was better than pre-pandemic, when only 73.3% to 75.0% of the region had reliable travel conditions, but below the 2020 reliability peak of 90.5%.
- The region’s Truck Travel Time Reliability Index was 1.67 in 2023. This value is below the worst performing year, 2018, which had a value of 1.91, and above the best performing year, 2020, which had a value of 1.55—though this occurred during the pandemic when non-essential workers were directed to work from home.
For more details on the levels of reliability on the region’s roadways and other congestion metrics, go to the “How are we doing?” tab in the Congestion Indicator.
Want to download the data for your own use? Under each chart, find a link to the data in DVRPC’s Data Catalog. You can also explore other indicators in Tracking Progress, DVRPC’s interactive dashboard for exploring Greater Philadelphia’s progress toward the Connections 2050 regional Vision.