New report reveals extent of Bay Area's intractable traffic

Byby Cornell Barnard KGO logo
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
New report reveals extent of intractable Bay Area traffic
It's no surprise that traffic in the Bay Area is bad, but now a brand new study is revealing just how bad the Bay Area commute can be and how much time people are wasting.

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- It's no surprise that traffic in the Bay Area is bad, but now a brand new study is revealing just how bad the Bay Area commute can be and how much time people are wasting.

The Bay Area is number three in the nation when it comes to cities with congested roads. Los Angeles in number one and Washington D.C. is listed at two.

A lot of drivers are going nowhere fast, slowly inching along in traffic.

Balvino Serrano commutes from Fairfield to San Francisco by carpool Monday through Friday. "The traffic's bad, even in the carpool it takes me two hours to get home," he said.

A new study by Inrix Car Data Systems shows Bay Area commuters spent a whopping 75 hours sitting in traffic in 2015. It says one of the worst commutes is along Highway 101 in San Francisco, from hospital curve across the Bay Bridge.

"Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday morning commutes from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m. are considered the worst times to be on the road," said Mark Burfein of Inrix Driving Data.

Sky7 HD flew over I-80, the Eastshore Freeway through Emeryville approaching another rough commute in the Bay Area also made the list, along with the Golden Gate Bridge approach northbound and big stretch of 280 through San Jose.

There's a reason it's taking people longer to get to work.

"Low unemployment rate, low fuel cost, are putting more people on the road," Burfein said.

Public transportation options are plenty, but they don't work for everyone. Some commuters say they've seen worse. "Nothing could be worse than Manila in the Philippines," said Robert Yu, a commuter.