With well over 4 million people in the Phoenix metropolitan area, people often find themselves stuck in traffic when commuting around the Valley. But, it’s not as bad as many other cities around the USA. According to the INRIX 2017 Global Traffic Scorecard, Phoenix is the 25th-most congested out of 297 cities in the nation based upon hours spent in congestion per year (34).

The scorecard indicated that Los Angeles, CA has the worst traffic congestion, where drivers spent over 100 hours stuck in congestion during 2017, followed by New York City, NY and San Francisco, CA.

Eric Anderson with the Maricopa Association of Government’s transportation department said, “We need to keep up with growth and keep traffic moving. City transportation officials are also working to clear crashes off the road faster. Crashes that occur on freeways during rush hour, even if they are minor, can cause major delays. So, if workers can get those cleaned up faster, highways can return to normal conditions faster. Transportation officials also want to experiment with using technology to provide better traffic information for drivers so they can make better decisions and ultimately save time.”

Arizona Department of Transportation has already started using active traffic management, along with intelligent transportation systems to help harmonize traffic around the state. Some proposed concepts being tested include responsive ramp metering and active communications using message boards.