DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — After traffic was cut down during the pandemic, with people staying home and off the roads, a new commuter survey from the Atlanta Regional Commission shows that traffic in the metro has been gradually been changing.
“We were sort of waiting till things settled back into some normal pattern,” Casey Sloan, ARC Data Analysis Administrator, told Channel 2’s Steve Gehlbach.
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According to Sloan, ARC surveyed more than 5,000 workers in the metro Atlanta region’s 20 counties.
The survey results showed that many workers are returning to the office and working from home less than during the COVID-19 shutdowns, but still much more than before the pandemic.
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“So in 2019, 43% of respondents were tele-working at all,” Sloan said. “And that’s since gone up to 60%. So, 60% of workers telework at least occasionally.”
The most dramatic change in traffic in the last few years, that surprised ARC staff the most, was the number of people who are working from home full-time now.
The number has more than tripled since 2019, according to ARC, going from 6% to 20%.
“So that’s 20% of workers full-time working from home,” Sloan told Channel 2 Action News. “They are not commuting, so that’s a big part of the new normal.”
The good news, according to ARC, is that it brought the average commute time down by five minutes overall, with rush hour now spread more evenly throughout the day.
ARC said the average commute distance in the metro area is at 18.5 miles, with the drive down to under 35 minutes.
The commission said they have incentives for commuters to drive together instead of driving solo and clogging roads.
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