Why Boston-area traffic is so bad

An early 2019 report said that Boston had the worst rush-hour traffic congestion in the U.S. of A. Other reports have reached similar conclusions and have shown that not only is the city’s gridlock particularly awful but that its commutes are particularly long.

Why is that? Myriad reasons.

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Topography

Boston isn’t just “Boston.” The City of Boston is part of a densely packed confederation of cities and towns that stretches for dozens of miles, and that together contains between four and five million residents, depending on where one draws regional boundaries.

If the Boston area were in fact its own city rather than a collection of municipalities, it would be more populous than any U.S. city save New York.

Another thing about this regional melange is that transportation policy, particularly when it comes to signage and speed limits and road width—and bike lanes and bus lanes—can vary. The lack of coordinated planning can foster, and has fostered, congestion.

Relatively bountiful and cheap parking

Boston Globe/Contributor/Getty Images

Several municipalities in the Boston region—including most significantly the City of Boston itself—distribute free resident parking permits like candy on Halloween. Or they charge relatively low fees such as $25 per household for an initial parking permit.

Plus, metered parking here is some of the cheapest in urban America. And condo and apartment developments invariably include parking (though all of this is slowly changing).

It’s only when drivers have to resort to private garages that it begins to pinch to park financially. Garage parking rates here can be comparable to those in nationwide-leading New York City.

Population growth

Boston proper is still off its 1950s population peak, but it’s getting there. The city expects its population to swell to as many as 724,000 residents by 2030. It’s 685,000, give or take, now. Meanwhile, surrounding municipalities such as Cambridge and Somerville are growing as well.

Based on these trends, then, the Boston region could crest 5 million residents in the next few years.

A lot more people can mean a lot more people driving, or taking app-hails such as Uber and Lyft or more conventional cabs.

Speaking of app-hails ...

They’re everywhere. Or at least there are a lot more of them than there used to be.

The number of rides in Massachusetts through app-hail companies such as Uber and Lyft increased about 25 percent in 2018, to 81.3 million, compared with 2017, according to a recent report from the state Department of Public Utilities.

Eight in 10 of those 2018 rides began in Suffolk and Middlesex countries, which host most of the Boston region, including the City of Boston itself. In fact, 42.2 million—or more than half—of the Uber et al rides started in Boston. Cambridge had the second-highest total of 2018 originations with 7.8 million.

Boston and Cambridge also saw the biggest jumps in app-hail originations, with 7.3 million and 1 million more year over year, respectively. Somerville saw the third-biggest increase, with nearly 600,000 more than in 2017.

Sure, it’s convenient. But more such rides means more traffic.

Along the same lines as app-hails ...

Amazon Prime is super-convenient too as is Instacart and other home-delivery services, which can drop goods big and small in building lobbies and on front porches via a few mouse clicks.

But such vendors and such services mean that many more vehicles—trucks especially—on the roadways. What’s more, various delivery companies, including UPS and FedEx, have a formal agreement with Boston proper protecting their trucks from ever being booted no matter how many tickets they pile up for blocking lanes, double-parking, etc.

Old roads

Boston is America’s oldest major city and its region the nation’s oldest major metropolitan area. Many of its roads are old, then, and not equipped to handle today’s volume of traffic.

The region’s highways—particularly I-93 and I-90—are big and modern, and relatively easy to navigate. But in many instances, especially from the region’s outer reaches, those modern highways can only be reached via thin, poorly marked, shoulder-less ribbons of often crowded and cracked asphalt.

Public transit problems

Boston Globe via Getty Images

Chronic challenges galore confront the Boston area’s public transit system—the T—including aging infrastructure, frequent delays-slash-breakdowns, escalating operating costs, and a seemingly ceaseless run of fare hikes. A Red Line derailment in early June, and its aftermath of delays and reroutings, highlighted the problems.

Oftentimes it can be so much easier and faster to Uber it or to just hop in the car.

Housing costs

The Boston region is one of the most expensive in the nation for buying or renting. It has long been so, and it appears that that will be the case for some time to come.

That reality (and the myriad causes behind it) has pushed, and continues to push, residents that much farther out in search of housing that is affordable and decent.

No wonder the region has one of the greatest shares nationally of supercommuters—those commuters who spend at least 90 minutes one way getting to and from the workplace.

It’s free!

Like other U.S. cities, barring major construction or a Super Bowl parade or a police action, the roadways are open 24-7 in all parts of the region in all kinds of weather.

And, unless they’re paying Interstate tolls, it costs drivers the same to drive into downtown Boston at 7 a.m. on a Sunday as it does at 7 a.m. on a Monday—in other words, nothing, whether it’s rush hour or not.

Might this change via congestion pricing—charging motorists to drive into busier areas during busier parts of the day? Stay tuned.