Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Is the amount of vehicles on the roadways, and the congestion that may result of an increase in cars going up in Buffalo? One study seems to suggest so, and traffic and law enforcement officials can agree.
According to a recent report done by the transportation data firm StreetLight, people are driving more now than they did five years ago, especially in New York State. Across the six metropolitan areas surveyed - Albany, Buffalo, New York City, Poughkeepsie, Rochester and Syracuse - have seen an increase in "vehicle miles traveled," a measure of total driving, since 2019.
As for Buffalo, the report says it saw the largest increase in the state with a 24% increase in people driving on the roadways. It also put the city among the worst cities of the 100 metropolitan areas studied in the entire country.
In addition, Buffalo had the second-highest congestion increase of the cities surveyed, only sitting behind Boise, Idaho.
New York State Trooper James O'Callaghan says there has definitely been an increase in vehicles traveled, even with the COVID-19 pandemic helping keep people off the roadways over a 2-3-year time period.
"We had a significant decrease in travel in the 2020, '21, and even going into the '22 years. So here we are, modern day, you're definitely going to see an increase like we are," said Trooper O'Callaghan in an interview with WBEN.
O'Callaghan has noticed congestion is worse in different areas of the region, and worse along different traffic routes.
"Whether you're going the I-290 to the water tower, you always get that congestion. It seems to be worse-and-worse, sometimes backing up to Sheridan, dependent on, obviously, vehicle collisions. And then we do the flip side through Buffalo, the Waterfront area, kind of where the Skyway is - if anything happens in there in the old toll area - for those familiar with the old toll area right by the Peace Bridge - that gets congested pretty good as you go into Buffalo right around the Peace Bridge area," O'Callaghan noted.
O'Callaghan adds the backups we're seeing along certain routes is now becoming a consistent trend to deal with.
"I don't know if that means infrastructure changes or things like that, but you can tell Buffalo is booming. We see a lot of different not only just restaurants, but a lot of different buildings and things being built, as far as housing people," O'Callaghan said. "Not only that, but in-and-around the suburbs of Buffalo, we're seeing a lot of housing developments and things go up in those areas, for calls of service, even. I imagine as things get more popular and Buffalo becomes more popular, more people may come to this area, which obviously increases your traffic flow."
Executive director of NITTEC, Athena Hutchins, agrees with O'Callaghan, saying once COVID hit back in 2020, the volume of traffic decreased, which led to a decrease in congestion. Since COVID is now behind us, she says some of the things they're seeing is a change in travel patterns, and also when the roads are starting to see congestion.
"You had your typical morning commute times where you'd see congestion and your afternoon commute. Those changed during COVID and then after COVID, and we noticed even days of the week it changed. Mondays and Fridays we weren't seeing as much congestion," Hutchins said with WBEN.
"The morning rush hour, we weren't seeing as much congestion as we had in previous years. And then it seems as though this is the first year past COVID that we have seen that morning rush hour in the certain areas on the expressway networks - I-190 South coming into the city, the I-290 at the 33 - we were seeing more congestion than we had seen since during COVID. And really just the afternoon, it seemed to have spread out. It started a little earlier in the afternoon. Our rush hour, sometimes, previous to COVID, it had started around 4 p.m., 4:30 p.m. Now, sometimes we're seeing it start around 3 p.m., 3:30 p.m."
As far as just travel time and congestion in the region, Hutchins says those numbers have returned back to what was seen pre-COVID. She adds the afternoon rush hour has been the worse of the two drive times.
When the Thruway Authority alleviated the toll barriers and went to the digital tolling, O'Callaghan points out that some people thought not having to stop for tolls would help decrease congestion. However, he says those areas are still being impacted with quite a bit of traffic.
"You could drive through them at a pretty good pace. We always say the Blue Water Tower - where you have the I-290 and I-90 come together, then you have the 33 right there going to the Buffalo Airport and/or Buffalo - that seems to be a serious traffic pattern problem, and it's only because you have a lot of different people going to different areas, and that just happens to be, unfortunately, the hub of a lot of popular roadways coming together. That will continue to be a problem, I don't know a fix on that," O'Callaghan said.
"It's just traffic congestion right there. It has nothing to do really with the tolls, which everyone originally thought, but it doesn't. It's just high volume roadways, a lot of traffic coming together like any other major city. It just happens to be our problem spot."
Hutchins says she's noticed one particular roadway in Buffalo that has seen traffic get worse recently with the return of kids in school.
"I know the I-190 North coming out of the city in the evening has definitely seen an increase in traffic, even since September, when schools returned back in September. It seems as if more businesses, people have returned to work. It does seem like that is a busy corridor that we have seen, and even the I-190 and I-290, some of those normal areas where we have always seen congestion seem to be still congested areas," she said.
So what may be some ways to help alleviate the number of vehicles on the roadway, which could potentially help lower congestion levels in certain areas?
Hutchins suggests taking another look into the opportunity to use public transit, such as the NFTA, or carpooling with others. She also says take a look at when you're driving and seeing if you can shift your times around a bit.
"If you drive in downtown at 7:30 every morning and you're stuck in traffic, maybe look, do you move it up to 7 o'clock?" Hutchins said. "Always have the opportunity to look at NITTEC's website or our app, NITTEC.org. You can take a look at the camera images, you can kind of see what the congestion is looking like before you head out, whether in the morning or the afternoon. That's a big tip for people to take a look and see what's happening out on the roadways."
O'Callaghan says there has been an uptick in people getting around from place-to-place with the help of e-bikes, which has its pros and cons.
"People with short kind of distances, whether to work or to a store, things like that, we're seeing the e-bike being very popular now. It doesn't require you to pedal, I guess, and physically push yourself or accel yourself, where the electronics of the bike can take you a little bit of the rest of the way. We're seeing a lot of uptick in that, but unfortunately, the downtick of that is we're seeing a lot of e-bike collisions with vehicle," he said.
Related
O'Callaghan adds if you may be someone caught in a situation where you anticipate being somewhere in 30 minutes and it's now 45 minutes because of traffic, have a plan of action, especially with another winter season on its way to Western New York.
"Make sure your car really never goes below a quarter tank of gas. You never know how long you might be in that situation," O'Callaghan noted. "Have water, have snacks, make sure your phone's charged in case you are involved in a collision, or you see something that you want to report. And I say that because, I hate to even mention this in Buffalo, but we are going to go into winter here in a very short period of time and the cold weather month. You don't want to be trapped outside. Right now, your car breaks down or you run out of gas, it's 70 degrees, you'll be OK. We can get you the assistance you need. But in the winter, it's a very different story. 15-20 minutes and you don't have a coat, a blanket, and your car has no heat, it could be a different story."