"One of the very positive benefits of this region is we are not a Los Angeles and we are not an Atlanta," said Scott Brady, manager of the office of travel monitoring for the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. "You are really not talking about serious congestion here, compared to some of those other areas."
Brady said local counts showed traffic volume had dropped in the Philadelphia region since 2007 because of the weak economy. An exception to that, he noted, was in the King of Prussia area where Route 422, the Schuylkill Expressway, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike converge.
If you think traffic jams are more prevalent than they used to be, you're right, according to the study.
In 1982, the average Philadelphia-area commuter lost 12 hours a year to traffic congestion. By 1999, that had increased to 31 hours, and by 2007, to 38 hours.
After a nationwide decline in congestion since 2007, because of the economy and higher gas prices, traffic seems to be picking up again, and the study's authors predicted worse times ahead.
"There is only a short-term cause for celebration," the report said. "Prior to the economy slowing, just three years ago, congestion levels were much higher than a decade ago; these conditions will return with a strengthening economy."
The decline in traffic "was a very rare occurrence," said Rick Remington, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. "It was a blip rather than a trend."
"As the economy rebounds, the traffic does come back."
