Summer doldrums mean less traffic, shorter travel times
But extensive roadway construction cuts back on time savings.
Thestar.com
July 5, 2016
By Robin Levinson King
One more reason to love summer: empty roads.
July and August are typically the slowest traffic months of the year, says Steve Buckley, the general manager of transportation services for the City of Toronto.
“We start seeing things fall off during the last week of school,” he said.
Traffic congestion on major highways typically hits its seasonal low in August, when families are on vacation. Delays drop by about 10 per cent over the course of the summer, Buckley said.
The city partnered with McMaster University to estimate average traffic delays, using Inrix GPS data, which is collected anonymously from people’s cellphones and devices in their cars.
A 2014 traffic study by the city found that average travel times on the Don Valley Pkwy. going northbound were cut from about 50 minutes in May to about 30 minutes in August.
There may be fewer vehicles on the road, but there’s more construction, Buckley said, which eats away at time you may have saved cruising down an emptier highway.
