The worst, best traffic in the state.

Posted byWaldo Jaquith 11 Comments on The worst, best traffic in the state.

The percentage of all Virginia roads in each municipality divided by the percentage of all miles driven in Virginia within that municipality yields a number that describes the ratio of roads to driving. This basically reveals how much of a problem with traffic should be expected within that municipality. The higher the number, the more the traffic. Using that formula on VDOT’s 2005 traffic data reveals that these are the 20 municipalities with the highest traffic integers:

  1. City of Fredericksburg (75)
  2. Arlington County (72)
  3. City of Alexandria (66)
  4. Fairfax County (65)
  5. City of Newport News (64)
  6. City of Hampton (62)
  7. City of Norfolk (61)
  8. Prince William County (61)
  9. City of Fairfax (57)
  10. City of Colonial Heights (53)
  11. Stafford County (50)
  12. City of Harrisonburg (49)
  13. City of Richmond (49)
  14. Henrico County (46)
  15. City of Chesapeake (45)
  16. City of Virginia Beach (45)
  17. City of Falls Church (44)
  18. York County (42)
  19. Loudoun County (42)
  20. New Kent County (40)

It seems likely that part of these scores comes from interstate highways passing through some of these localities — 81 and 95, in particular. This list is clearly very urban.

For the curious, here are the ten municipalities with the lowest scores:

  1. Buckingham County (-363)
  2. Cumberland County (-368)
  3. Dickenson County (-373)
  4. Patrick County (-412)
  5. Floyd County (-519)
  6. Grayson County (-586)
  7. Lunenburg County (-601)
  8. Bath County (-748)
  9. Craig County (-974)
  10. Highland County (-999)

As you can see, the scoring system loses all meaning in counties with such enormous disparities between lane miles and miles traveled. In comparison to the prior list, this is basically a list of the most rural counties in the state.

Charlottesville, incidentally, shows up at #36, with a score of 32, and Albemarle is at #51, with a score of 12.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

11 replies on “The worst, best traffic in the state.”

  1. Pingback: hburgnews » H’burg: 12th worst traffic in the state?

  2. I bet that, if you extracted the traffic on I-66 and I-395 from Arlington County (I imagine very few residents actually use either, regularly), we’d drop quite a bit in the rankings. My point? None, really, other than thanking god I don’t live in Fairfax or some other place that requires getting in a car on a daily basis . . .

  4. Do you mean I-64? 64 passes through all the Hampton Roads localities, New Kent, and Richmond.
    Out of those top areas, 81 only passes through Harrisonburg…which to be honest about it, I would agree. 81 is not so bad in Harrisonburg but the surface streets are just terrible.

  5. I’ve sat through Virginia Beach and Norfolk’s rush hour many times. It is nowhere near as bad as Charlottesville/Albemarle.

  6. Not sure what value the list provides. PARTS of Norfolk, Virginia beach, Albemarle and Charlottesville are much worse than anything in Richmond or Henrico. The calculation looks like averages rather than maximum load which would occur at rush-hour and be longer in duration in some locations. That is what the issue is…

  7. Charlottesville-Albemarle’s biggest problem is that we only a few main roads that takes traffic out of town. If there is ever an accident on 64, 250, or 29 it cascades all throughout town with very few alternatives for drivers. It’s too bad that I don’t see much in this transportation bill that will anything for any here or anyone outside of Tidewater or NOVA for that matter.

    Also, just as a side note (question), does anyone else find it unfair that despite thousands of commuters coming in only five jurisdictions in NOVA are expected to bear the costs of new infrastructure? I mean look at how many people from drive from Spotsylvania, Stafford, Fauquier, DC, and the Maryland suburbs into that area for work but only five jurisdictions are expected to pay?

  8. This data is even more compelling when one considers that morning commuters very, very seldom stay in one jurisdiction. A commuter from Stafford County to DC is going to pass through Stafford County, Prince William County, Fairfax County, City of Alexandria, and Arlington County – just to get to DC. It’s understandably a little hard to grasp how terrible the situation currently is if you’re not used to doing it.

    Oh and Waldo, sidebar, you really need to understand what Tysons Corner is. Email me. :)

    Brian

  9. Reminds me of a Canadian author mentioning that Crystal City was a made up place in an X-Files Episode Guide because she couldn’t find it on a map. Welcome to the new urban reality…

  10. Ah, Fredericksburg. Home sweet home.

    The city also happens to be surrounded by two counties that have had population booms over the last fifteen to twenty years, Spotsylvania in particular.

    The problem with that area is nothing is near anything else. Most commercial space is stuck together on the other side of the area from all the residential, forcing you to drive from one side of town to the other if you need anything. This may ease up a bit with the development of Massaponax (I can never spell that area right) on the southside of town, easing the crush on the north/west end but still, poor development all around.

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