Is Your Drive Time Commute Getting Worse?

Is Your Drive Time Commute Getting Worse?

Short answer: Most likely.

With the introduction and subsequent adoption of the remote work model that followed the COVID Pandemic, vehicle commuters saw the time spent travelling to their office in the city, and the return journey home plummet. The answer was obvious: the number of travelers headed to work in the city was a fraction of what it was in the Pre-Covid times.

As it stands currently, the answer is not so simple. Kastle Security Systems provides data on card swipes in commercial real estate buildings. They issue a “Back-to-Work Barometer” reading that hovers around a 50% average of occupancy over a selection of ten cities they monitor. While they do not report data for every building in every major city, one only has to peer out the office window to the street (or down the hall) to confirm for themselves – the number of physical bodies in the city during standard office hours is dramatically lower. This leads to the all-important question – what (or who) is tacking the minutes back on to your drive time commute? Even Jonathan Gulliver, State Highway Administrator for MassDOT acknowledged in 2021 that “traffic, for all intents and purposes, is back to about 2019 levels.”

The answer involves a variety of factors, but one constant remains. Ridership on the variety of public transportation modes that Massachusetts offers has dropped precipitously. As of the latest available data provided by MBTA/MassDOT, it has not yet made a triumphant return. A glance at the chart below tells us overall ridership is down almost 50%. Although it is difficult to determine if these numbers will rise in the coming months, it appears unlikely given that winter weather is rapidly approaching which generally leads to an uptick in public transportation riders switching to vehicles.

MBTA Ridership Data: Month of September 2018-2022
Average Weekday Trips

MBTA Ridership Average Weekday Trips
Month of September 2018-2022

This vehicle traffic uptick, and public transport ridership decrease is a culmination of several factors. Workers who previously commuted via the T or commuter rail have changed their ways. Many grew accustomed to driving in alone when traffic was light, others had health concerns over using the public transport infrastructure or carpooling – others still remained at home to work, but still used the road and highways for errands in the middle of the day with their newfound freedom and flexibility.

The seemingly never-ending building construction, road renovation, as well as the addition of bike and bus only lanes only seek to further compound the issue and add additional time that drivers spend in congestion.

To be clear – the MBTA is not providing a compelling alternative as of late. Service line shutdowns (and conflagrations), shuttle bus stop gap measures, and a general lack of service to a variety of core commuter regions complicate this issue and the decision making process for the average commuter. One thing drive time commuters must accept – you are not in traffic, you are traffic.

Author: Mark Fallon, Director of Research & Strategy
The above data is from sources deemed to be generally reliable, but no warranty is made as to the accuracy of the data nor its usefulness for any particular purpose

https://www.kastle.com/safety-wellness/getting-america-back-to-work/
https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/03/17/traffics-back-boston-patterns-pandemic
https://mbtabackontrack.com/performance/#/detail/ridership/2018-09-01////