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TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

June/July 2008

Facts & Figures:
Bay Area Freeway Congestion Rises Overall as
Traffic Eases Along Key Corridors

Traffic Up 12 Percent in 2007

(Click to enlarge)

Traffic delays along several of the Bay Area’s most congested freeway corridors declined in 2007 — even as the region saw overall traffic reach its highest level since 2000.

The region experienced 161,700 vehicle hours of delay during commute periods on an average weekday during 2007, a 12 percent increase over 2006 and second only to the 177,600 hours recorded in 2000, at the height of the dot-com boom. The increase in 2007 marks the fourth year in a row that traffic levels have been on an upswing as a byproduct of an expanding economy. Last year’s uptick also can be attributed to a more robust data collection effort by MTC and Caltrans, which jointly released the new data.

“We recorded congestion in one year that likely had been building up over several years,” said Caltrans District 4 Director and MTC Commissioner Bijan Sartipi.

Although Interstate 80 from Hercules to the Bay Bridge once again topped the list of the region’s most congested freeway locations, delay along the corridor fell 9 percent in 2007 compared to 2006, thanks in part to the new FasTrak® configuration at the Bay Bridge toll plaza, and a rising number of FasTrak® users.

The worst of the Bay Area’s congestion tends to be concentrated in a few familiar places, with eight of the top 10 regional hot spots showing up on the 2006 list as well. Congestion levels in 2008 may drop due to $4-plus per gallon gasoline and a weak real estate market.
— Joe Curley and John Goodwin

Top 10 Bay Area Traffic Hot Spots
Ranking of Commute-Period Bottlenecks Along Freeways, 2007

(Number 1 indicates the most congested freeway)

2007 Rank Location 2007 Daily (Weekday) Vehicle Hours of Delay 2006 Rank
1 Interstate 80, westbound, a.m.
Alameda/Contra Costa County
Route 4 to Bay Bridge metering lights
11,100
1
2 Interstate 580, eastbound, p.m.
Alameda County
Interstate 680 to Greenville Road
7,410
 2
3 U.S. 101, southbound, a.m.
Marin County
Rowland Boulevard to Interstate 580
6,490
4
4 Interstate 580, westbound, a.m.
Alameda County
Interstate 205 to Hacienda Drive
5,120
 3
5 U.S. 101, northbound and Interstate 80, eastbound, p.m.
San Francisco
U.S. 101: Alemany Boulevard to I-80; I-80: U.S. 101 to Sterling Street on-ramp
4,760
 5
6 Route 4, westbound a.m.
Contra Costa County
A Street/Lone Tree Way to Route 242
4,750
9
7 Route 92, eastbound, p.m.
Alameda County
Industrial Boulevard to Interstate 880
3,930
6
8 Interstate 880, southbound, a.m.
Alameda County
Marina Boulevard to south of Industrial Parkway
3,790
26
9 Interstate 80, eastbound, p.m.
San Francisco and Alameda counties
Bryant Street/5th Street in San Francisco to east of Powell Street in Emeryville
3,530
8
10 U.S. 101, southbound, p.m.
Santa Clara County
Great America Parkway to North 13th Street/Oakland Road
3,210
14

Notes: Rankings are for routes in which continuous stop-and-go conditions occur with few, if any, breaks in the queue. Thus, corridors that have equally severe delays, but where congestion is broken into several segments, may rank lower in this type of congestion listing. Congestion is defined as average speeds below 35 miles per hour for 15 minutes or more. Source: MTC, Caltrans District 4.

For more details, see the May 14, 2008 press release.

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