(NEXSTAR) – If there is one thing the majority of drivers can agree upon, it’s that nobody likes sitting in traffic. Luckily for Texas residents, it appears that traffic is dropping significantly in most of its largest cities since before the pandemic in 2019, a study by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute found.
While some of America’s large metro areas with a lot of office workers have seen traffic congestion stay rise above pre-pandemic levels, Texas cities have been doing the exact opposite for the most part.
The Houston area, for example, saw a major drop in traffic with about an 11% drop in traffic delay time in 2022 than in 2019. San Antonio was similar, with a 10% drop in traffic. Even Dallas saw a 1% drop.
Austin’s traffic levels have stayed the same since 2019, the study found.
Smaller Texas cities also seemed to follow suit, with El Paso seeing a 17% drop, McAllen with a 5% drop, Beaumont at 21%, and Corpus Christi and Brownsville with a 19% and 22% drop.
But one Texas city is seeing substantially more traffic since 2019–Laredo, where traffic delays are up about 10% compared to pre-COVID.
For Laredo and other U.S. cities with worse traffic, what could be contributing to worse congestion? One thing many of the cities with worsening traffic have in common is trucking traffic.
Trucks and delivery vehicles are zipping around the country more than ever before, from fulfillment centers to retail stores and doorsteps, explained David Schrank, a senior research scientist and primary author of the Institute’s Urban Mobility Report. If you look at cities with worsening traffic, many are at the intersection of key trucking corridors, meaning there’s constant movement on the roads — even outside of commuter traffic.
People have also shifted to new cities since the pandemic, heading to the suburbs and exurbs for more space, but leaving them with a longer commute now that they’re back in the office.