INRIX’s National Traffic Scored 2009 Annual Report provides year over year insight into traffic patterns nationally.

The high level point is that traffic dropped 30% starting in late 2007, bottomed in Q2’09 and is on the rise again.  This pace of this rise though is driven in large part ‘by the pace of economic recovery — particularly job growth and fuel pries.’  In 2009 the national fuel average dropped to $2.35/gallon from $3.25 in 2008 (here in Los Angeles it was more like $3.25 and $4, so it seemed).  Basically, if you’ve managed to keep a job through this economy your commute should have been quicker and cheaper.

INRIX highlights a number of issues related to the gridlock throughout large parts of the country (partial list below):

How much and how fast congestion will increase from 2009 will depend on job growth

Attacking bottlenecks is critical

Fright mobility is a national issue

I’m particularly a fan of the story of the I580 and I101 interchange which was ranked 3rd and 4th worst nationally in 2007 and 2008 respectively, but fell to 491st after a simple restriping of the lanes (to add a second).

Facts and Stats:

The nation’s Travel Time Tax™ was 8.9% in 2009 (vs. 8.8% in 2008, 13.3% in 2007)

Changes in morning congestion (down) and evening congestion (up) cancelled out

30 minute commutes average 22 hours of annual travel time delay nationwide

Stimulus projects are increasing off-peak congestion, up 25% from 2008

75 of the 100 largest metropolitan areas still have less congestion than in 2006

Click through to the report itself for the nitty gritty details of the report.

via [INRIX]

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