San Francisco-Oakland Metro Area has worst non-peak traffic delays in the nation? (Berkeley: trains, design)

[18Montclair]

Interesting.

So the Texas Transportation Institute came out with their widely respected annual report on traffic congestion and if you open this pdf and look at the far right column, it shows that we have the worst traffic delays for non-peak time traffic...meaning non commute hours. I have suspected that we would be among the worst in this regard, especially on WEEKENDS.

http://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net...nal-table7.pdf

[04kL4nD]

DC and LA traffic are much worse overall, but weekends traffic is a nightmare in the Bay Area. Funny how we ranked 37th in the stress index though- must be those scenic freeway vistas

[DocGoldstein]

There isn't much difference between LA Metro and Bay Area traffic just as I've always suspected. The traffic in the Bay Area has been a nightmare since the late 90s.

[04kL4nD]

That just isn't true.

In the Bay Area, the main freeways are clogged during commute hours and when something interesting is happening over the weekend in SF.

In LA the surface streets are pretty much clogged 24/7. All those broker/Wall Street types follow East Coast hours, creating their own rush hour, which is why at 4AM there will be traffic on the freeway.

Traffic here sucks, but it's nowhere near LA's level. There just aren't enough cars to make it even close...

[sav858]

A big difference between here and LA is you have good public transit as an alternative many times with BART.

[DocGoldstein]

Have you been in Berkeley or S.F during weekdays? It's clogged 24/7.

This study proves that Bay Area traffic not being as bad as L.A is a myth just like "Bay Area mass transit is way ahead of SoCal".

[sliverbox]

I've never felt the traffic was all that bad here. The worst traffic I ever saw was in DC. That was terrible. Ironically some of the other bad traffic I've seen was in Austin TX where all the commuters from Round Rock and other burbs were making their way into the city.

[Ruth4Truth]

The way I heard it years ago, the Bay Area, along with Seattle, have the worst bottlenecks. In Seattle, it's due to poorly-designed roads, and also the small bridges. I don't know what the problem is in the Bay Area outside of commute hours, I've always used BART.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

Have you been in Berkeley or S.F during weekdays? It's clogged 24/7.

This study proves that Bay Area traffic not being as bad as L.A is a myth just like "Bay Area mass transit is way ahead of SoCal".

That one is not a myth, just look at the percentages of people that use mass transit in both places, HUGE difference. Actual hard data proves it's not a myth.

What's a myth is you thinking LA's mass transit is on par with the Bay Area just because Metrolink has cleaner trains than BART.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

The way I heard it years ago, the Bay Area, along with Seattle, have the worst bottlenecks. In Seattle, it's due to poorly-designed roads, and also the small bridges. I don't know what the problem is in the Bay Area outside of commute hours, I've always used BART.

I think it's somewhat the same issues, bottlenecks and older freeways. The Bay Bridge and Caldecott Tunnel are bottlenecks and 101 through the City is old, narrow, and slow.