DC area near top of worst traffic list

Prince William County has once again been singled out for bad traffic.

On the heels of a report that stated Linton Hall commuters have the worst trek to work of any spot in the nation, the authors of a new study have also noted the area for having some of the worst bottlenecks in the Washington region.

INRIX — a Washington state-based company that collects traffic data for the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Interstate 95 coalition, Ford Motor Company and various GPS providers, issued a report that marked Washington, D.C., as having the fourth worst traffic in the U.S.

Called the National Traffic Scorecard, it shows the capital city moved up two spots on the survey over last year — from six to four — and stated that conditions are getting worse across the county.

After seeing historic declines in driving — blamed on both the recession and the record gas prices last year — drivers are once again taking to the roads.

Rick Schuman, vice-president of the public sector at INRIX, said the Washington area was seemingly immune to the affects the recession had on traffic in other U.S. cities.

“Anyone traveling on I-95 south of Springfield knows where the bottlenecks are, and we have that area listed as having some of the worst bottlenecks in the region,” said Schuman.

A former Fairfax County resident, Schuman left the area at the start of the Springfield Interchange Improvement Project 10 years ago. He is all too familiar with the problems that plague local drivers.

“When we look at bottlenecks, it’s tilted more towards Virginia than Maryland, and it’s always the usual suspects,” he said.

Topping the region’s most congested spots are I-95 between Potomac Mills and Cardinal Drive in Dale City, the Dulles Toll Road merge at I-66, Interstates 395 and 95 through Fairfax County and the ever-congested bottleneck on the Virginia side of the 14th Street Bridge.

While these bottlenecks weren’t specifically named in this latest report, Schuman said they consistently appear on traffic congestion reports his company compiles.

The study shows that traffic has gotten significantly worse during the first quarter of this year. While Schuman said traffic rates have not rebounded to pre-recession levels, there are some new eye-popping statistics that come with the new report.

The typical urban commuter spends more than 30 hours a year stuck in traffic delays. Washington area drivers on average spend at least six minutes more in their cars during their commute than they did in 2008.

Evening delays grew worse than morning delays across the nation. Wednesday between 8 and 9 a.m. is typically the worst morning commute, while Friday between 5 and 6 p.m. remains the busiest afternoon travel period.

Across the country, traffic during off-peak periods such as mid-days, evenings, overnights and weekends has also seen increases in travel delays. That may be attributed to more construction funded by federal stimulus dollars, said Schuman.

While Los Angeles and New York City top the list as the most congested cities, Baton Rouge saw the biggest increase in delays as it jumped from 22 on the list last year to 13. San Diego saw the largest decline as it fell from 13 to 19.

INRIX tracks and uses data from GPS-enabled vehicles that travel across nearly 1 million miles of roads to compile the report.

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.