Very few good things came out of the pandemic, but here’s one: Traffic congestion is way down, at least in Seattle.

While some cities have recovered and even surpassed their 2019 traffic-congestion levels, Seattle in 2022 remained far from its peak, according to a new report from Kirkland-based INRIX, a traffic data and car technology company.

Gene Balk 0423672351 0435169664

Traffic congestion last year was down 38% in Seattle from 2019, which is the third-biggest drop among the 25 most congested U.S. urban areas. Sacramento had the biggest decline, at 44%, followed by Providence, Rhode Island, at 40%.

INRIX analyzed traffic congestion in 295 U.S. urban areas. Many places, including Seattle, saw their lowest levels of traffic congestion in 2021, at the height of the pandemic. As things started to return to normal in 2022, traffic congestion increased across the board. But most cities did not bounce back to their 2019 levels.

Among the 25 most congested areas, only four exceeded their pre-pandemic traffic congestion in 2022: Las Vegas (up a remarkable 156%), Miami, Nashville and Chicago. San Francisco’s levels were equal to 2019.

The report notes smaller urban areas have largely returned to pre-pandemic congestion levels while most of the largest and most congested places have lagged behind.

Advertising

Whatever the reason, Seattle is, for now, not among the worst urban areas for traffic congestion. Remember when Seattle was inside the Top 10? At our worst — in 2017 and 2018 — INRIX ranked us sixth in the U.S. for time lost sitting in traffic.

Since the start of the pandemic, Seattle has dropped down in the rankings for worst congestion in the U.S. In 2022, we ranked 19th among U.S. urban areas, sandwiched between Austin and Concord, California. Globally, we ranked 93rd, between Bari, Italy, and Lugano, Switzerland.

Here’s one data point to illustrate the change: In 2018, Seattle drivers lost 138 hours to traffic congestion, on average, according to INRIX. That number was just 48 hours last year.

Chicago had the nation’s worst traffic in 2022, with the average driver losing 155 hours to traffic congestion. Worldwide, Chicago ranked just slightly behind London, which had the worst traffic in the world, with drivers losing 156 hours to congestion.

The report also includes an estimate of what congestion costs the typical driver in each city. It turns out these costs may be one of the very few bargains we get as Seattle-area residents.

INRIX pegged the average cost of congestion here at $779 in 2022 — and while that’s not insignificant, it ranked fifth lowest among the 25 most congested areas. In No. 1 Chicago, the typical driver lost $2,618 in congestion-related costs. Note that those dollar amounts don’t include fuel cost increases, which cost the average American driver $134 more in 2022 than in 2021, according to INRIX.

But we still have one stretch of road that ranks among the worst in the nation. In Tacoma, southbound Highway 167 from 15th St. S.W. to Valley Avenue East, ranked as the 17th-worst corridor in the country. Drivers lost an average 14.5 minutes per day on this road during their late-afternoon commutes.