Philly’s Commute Congestion Among Worst Worldwide Despite Pandemic Traffic Reductions-MontCo Today

The average driver in the Philadelphia region spent fewer hours stuck in traffic due to the pandemic, but the area still remained amongst the most congested ones in the world in 2020, write Adam Sichko and Kennedy Rose for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

According to a recently released Global Traffic Scorecard from Inrix, a transportation analytics firm, the typical Philadelphia drivers lost 94 hours in traffic despite the widespread office and school closures.

The national average is significantly lower at 26 hours.

The Inrix analysis compared the worst part of morning and afternoon commute times with free-flowing traffic conditions.

The City of Brotherly Love ranked fifth on Inrix’s global scorecard, coming behind only Bogota, Colombia with 133 hours, Bucharest, Romania with 134 hours, New York with 100 hours, and Moscow, Russia, with 100 hours.

But despite this high ranking, Philadelphia area drivers still saved 48 hours on the road last year compared to 2019, as the average traveling time dropped 34 percent year on year.

Meanwhile, drivers in other cities throughout the country, including in Pittsburgh, lost no time from congestion last year.

Read more about the report’s findings at the Philadelphia Business Journal here.