Bay Area traffic is back and could be here to stay.
Traffic across the region, especially on the freeways, has almost fully returned to pre-pandemic levels, before COVID-19 confined most people into their homes and off the streets.
However, roadways still aren't completely as filled as they were prior to March, 2020.
KCBS Radio Traffic Reporter Kim Vestal, who lives in the South Bay, noticed a distinct difference in her present day commute compared to the congestion she used to experience returning home from the city.
"In the pre-pandemic days, traffic was nuts in Silicon Valley. No one was working remotely, or very few people were," she told "Bay Current" on Tuesday. "At 8 o'clock at night, southbound (Route) 85 would still be bumper to bumper. I would drive all the way down from San Francisco and then hit a traffic jam. And it was not fun. And now, it's wide open at 8 o'clock. It has not returned at all to pre-pandemic."
Some experts estimate that as traffic volumes continue to lengthen commutes to work and home, more people will opt to use Bay Area public transit instead.
As the pandemic persists, only time will tell if traffic will also.
Related
