- A 20-minute drive in light traffic takes three times longer to complete during times of peak congestion.
- The metro consumes the third most gas in the nation.
- The average SF commuter spends nearly 7 hours in traffic per month.
Along with housing costs, traffic congestion in metro San Francisco appears to be an additional stress for residents.
Drivers in San Francisco are said to deal with 78 hours of traffic-related delays during a year, according to a report from INRIX and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. This ranks San Francisco as having the third most traffic in the nation.
Heavy traffic image via Shutterstock.
This volume of delays also garnered the market the second highest “commuter stress” score among the nation’s 15 largest metros.
In total, private vehicles that commute within the urban area deal with 146,013 extra hours of travel time a year, which is the 13th highest number of hours among large metros.
These extra hours of travel equate to commuters utilizing 33 more gallons of gas each in a 12-month period. San Francisco ranked third in this gas usage category, which is a small contributing factor to the market’s overall high cost of living.
As of November, the average price for a gallon of gas in San Francisco was $2.84, according to San Francisco Gas Buddy. Thirty-three gallons of gas equates to an additional $93.72 in costs each year, but that’s not including added stress to vehicles and overall happiness.
The metro also received a freeway planning time index of 3.3, the 6th highest among large areas. This 3.3 score means a 20-minute drive in “light traffic” would take 66 minutes during congestion peaks.
