Good news! Roads are getting clearer, not worse, a new government study says. The Federal Highway Administration’s annual congestion measurements for the 52 largest urban areas in the United States says that congestion decreased from 2014 to 2018.
Using data from the National Performance Management Research Data Set, the Highway Administration measures the length of time per day that the monitored roadways in urban areas were less than 90 percent of free traffic flow. During high traffic, or traffic flow over 90 percent, vehicles are usually moving at less than optimal (below speed limit) speeds with high congestion. Under 90 percent generally has freely flowing traffic moving at or near posted speeds.
The 2018, urban congestion resulted in 4 hours and 16 minutes of traffic per day that were worse than 90 percent traffic flow. This was an improvement of 47 minutes over 2014 (5 hrs, 3 mins).
The reasons for better flow are not part of the study.