CBS2 Chicago Uses TrafficCarma Mobility Trends Data to Compare Traffic Volumes and Commuter Rail System Ridership With Pre-COVID Numbers

CBS2 Chicago's Steven Graves recently reported on the plans of Chicago’s commuter rail system – Metra – to add more trains to its schedule as the Windy City opens up. With more people traveling into the city and more cars already on the roads, Metra intends to gradually return train schedules to pre-COVID levels.

In the story, CBS2 Chicago spoke to Dan Ginsburg from iHeartMedia’s Total Traffic & Weather Network, who observed: “What we’re seeing is, overall, traffic volume is just about back to where it was. But the patterns are different.” Ginsburg said more people are traveling on the roads – not simply during rush hour – but throughout all hours of the day. And summertime usually sees a spike.

For his observations, Ginsburg used data from Iteris’ TrafficCarma Mobility Trends, which provides insights from daily updates of changes in traffic volume and congestion across major U.S. markets. TrafficCarma Mobility Trends precisely identifies how much traffic volumes are picking up and how they compare with pre-pandemic traffic levels.

Gil Edwards, Iteris’ director of product strategy, points to how TrafficCarma Mobility Trends reflects the public’s increasing confidence in being able to go out and be in closer proximity with other commuters. “More people on the roads means more people going back into the office, or returning to retail, hospitality or service jobs that were paused during the pandemic. Some will hit the road again and drive, and others will take transit.”

Edwards adds: “When we were observing all of the strong middle-of-the-day traffic during the pandemic, you could argue that there were many people using their cars at home, because they had access to their cars as an inverse relationship to not taking public transit to work, where they wouldn’t have had access to a car in the middle of the day.”

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About the Author:

David Sadeghi is senior manager, digital marketing at Iteris.

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