Bay Area Traffic Trends

2 min read Original article ↗

Click a freeway on the map

Through the day

Typical speed over 24 hours (or a whole week). Click the graph to set the map time.

This time of week, over the years

Week at a glance

Every day & hour for the selected years. Click a cell to jump the map there.

Click a freeway on the map

Where & when congestion forms

Distance along the freeway (vertical) against time of day (horizontal) for the selected day and years. Slow zones growing and shrinking are bottlenecks and their queues.

Hours of congestion, over time

Best time to leave

Pick two points on the same freeway: click the map for the start (A), then press “Pick B” and click the end.

A: — B: —

Commute asymmetry

For every freeway location, how much slower than free-flow is each direction in the morning (12a–12p) and in the evening (12p–12a)? That slow-down is the "area above the curve" (mph·hours) on the Point graph. The map recolors each location by how lopsided the two directions are. Uses the selected day(s) and years; the time slider doesn't matter here.

Click a freeway on the map

Most lopsided spots

Click one to go there. (One per stretch of freeway.)

Compare with another year

Pick a year to compare the selected years against. The map then shows the change in speed at the chosen day and time (green = faster now, red = slower), and the other graphs add a dashed line for the comparison year. Choose “nothing” to switch it off.