When cities shut down and companies turned to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, traffic plunged in tandem -- with improved air quality as an added benefit. Many hoped this trend might continue as the country emerged from the health crisis, but it didn't take long for car travel to shoot back up.
And yet a new report shows California -- long known as an epitome of car culture -- may be a bright spot as driving rates across the U.S. far surpass their prepandemic rates.
Data analyzed by StreetLight Data from January 2019 to May 2024 shows that when taking into account both vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and congestion, the San Francisco metro area fared the best of any U.S. city, with a slight decrease in congestion and a 13% decline in total VMT. It was the only city in the U.S. where both numbers fell.
That's a big win for the City by the Bay, but what might be more surprising is what happened in the California city most infamous for its traffic congestion: Los Angeles. LA saw the biggest dip in average daily VMT in the last five years of all major metros, down 17%. And while it's still the worst metro for congestion overall -- ranking No. 100 out of 100 -- it has experienced a net-zero change in congestion since 2019. Not getting worse when most cities did is a big win for LA.
California cities filled the top five spots on the list of metros ranked by VMT decline. Miles traveled in the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura metro were down 16%, while VMT in the San Jose metro dipped 12%. VMT dipped 8% in the San Diego metro.
"What stands out about California is I think typically we do expect East Coast and West Coast to mirror each other a little in terms of these driving trends," Emily Adler, content director for StreetLight, told SFGATE. "But actually we don't see that. On the East Coast, overwhelmingly, vehicle miles travel are actually going up."
The Sacramento area stayed steady with zero change. Out of the 100 metros analyzed, only 10 had rates below prepandemic levels.
The report doesn't dive into possible reasons behind the changes, but one could guess that population changes have at least something to do with it. While many have fled (and are continuing to flee) the major coastal metros in California since 2019, largely driven by housing prices, inland cities like Riverside and Stockton have seen a population boom. The Bay Area, with its focus on the technology industry, also saw one of the biggest declines in workers returning to the office due to its high percentage of remote employees and the popularity of hybrid work arrangements.
Other factors, like the high cost of commuting in San Francisco, could also be affecting travel.
The Bakersfield metro had a moderate 1% increase in VMT, with just a 0.5% increase in congestion. Stockton, Riverside and Fresno had the most measurable increases in the Golden State, rising 7%, 8% and 9%, respectively. Congestion rose only moderately in those cities (Bakersfield's rose 0.5%, Stockton's rose 1.6%, Riverside's grew 1.8% and Fresno's rose 1.3%).
New York saw the biggest increases in both congestion and VMT, and the metro area actually saw congestion jump "faster than the next 47 most populous cities." Cities in Texas and Florida also saw large bumps in VMT, with the McAllen, Texas, area seeing the biggest increase of 68%.