Local

What clogged roads are costing Charlotte commuters

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Workers in major metros across the country are wasting more and more time behind the wheel, and Charlotte, with its rapidly expanding population and increasingly clogged interstates, is no exception.

That’s according to a recently released study by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, which worked with traffic-data provider Inrix to examine conditions in nearly 500 urban areas in each state as well as Puerto Rico.

The 2019 Urban Mobility Report found the average commuter in the Charlotte area is losing about 57 hours per year — at a cost of roughly $1,158 for each motorist — to delays caused by traffic congestion, which is at its worst during the afternoon rush hour.

That’s higher than the national average of 54 hours spent sitting in traffic jams, which works out to a cost of about $1,010 per commuter.

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