Report shows traffic congestion spreading to midday and weekends

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) – If you feel like you’re spending more time in traffic on the weekends and in the middle of the day, you’re probably right. The Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s recently released annual report shows drivers are not just sitting in traffic during the usual morning and evening work commute. The report highlights that traffic congestion has fully returned since COVID, but in doing so, has spread to midday, midweek and even weekends. We talked to the Institute’s senior researcher, David Schrank, who says as drivers have returned to the road, their habits may have changed.

“We are seeing more congestion in the middle of the day, not nearly like we see in the peak periods, but it’s starting to creep up some,” said Schrank. “The sort of anecdotal thoughts are that the hybrid workers who need to go into the office may not be driving at 7:00 in the morning. They may wait to the backside of the peak, get in their car, go do their meetings that they need to have, and then maybe even get out early and go home and log in again.”

We asked about all the money the state of Texas has poured into construction projects to ease congestion. Why is there still so much traffic? Schrank says the projects have helped. He says Texas, and Houston specifically, used to rank in the top 10 nationwide for congestion. He says in this post-COVID era, we’re now ranked 15th. He says even though more people are moving to the Lone Star State, we’re still the beneficiary of the projects aimed at easing traffic delays.

“We all know the orange construction barrel. We see them every day when we’re out there,” said Schrank. “A lot of those projects you may not remember have already wrapped up and are helping drivers. As more barrels are put out on the other roads you’re using. So what we’ve seen across Texas is that the cumulative effect of all the construction has actually been helping.”