Honolulu remains the second-worst city in the nation for traffic congestion: Drivers in this crowded capital city wasted 10 more hours on average sitting in traffic in 2013 than they did the previous year, a new report finds.
Drivers on average spent 60 hours stuck in Honolulu traffic delays in 2013, compared with 50 hours in 2012, according to an analysis by INRIX Inc., which released its annual report on traffic conditions Tuesday.
Those 10 extra hours represented the largest average increase in time lost sitting behind the wheel among the top 10 traffic-clogged cities, the Kirkland, Wash.-based firm found.
For the second year in a row, only Los Angeles topped Honolulu among U.S. cities for traffic backups with 64 hours wasted on average, INRIX’s report on 2013 conditions found.
San Francisco came in third, followed by Austin, Texas, and New York to round out the worst five. Bridgeport, Conn.; San Jose, Calif.; Seattle; Boston; and Washington, D.C., also made the top-10-worst list. (When compared with last year’s bunch, the only difference is that Boston and Washington switched places.)
In 2011 Honolulu held the dreaded top spot, with Los Angeles ranked second on the list.
Overall, traffic congestion rose 6 percent in 2013, with drivers in those 10 worst cities wasting an average of 47 hours compared with 42 hours in 2012, according to INRIX.
"Congestion is on its way back, even with only modest urban area economic and job growth," the report stated.
INRIX pinpointed four H-1 freeway stretches on Oahu as among the nation’s most congested corridors: Aolele Street to Moanalua Road; eastbound from Middle Street to Vineyard Boulevard; eastbound from Paiwa Street to Moanalua Road; and westbound from Koko Head Avenue to Pali Highway. The report also flagged a westbound stretch on the Moanalua Freeway as among the most congested, from Kaua Street to the H-1.
INRIX’s latest report comes as a new batch of road construction and improvement projects tied to city, state and the island’s rail authority gets underway.
The city is working on an unprecedented five-year endeavor to repave Honolulu’s badly damaged and degraded roads. During 2013, the project’s first year, officials reported repaving a record-breaking 392 lane-miles of city-owned streets.
The state, meanwhile, has two major H-1 repaving projects in the works. The effort includes an overdue attempt to repave most of the freeway in town. Linked to that, state transportation officials expect that this spring, drivers will start seeing overnight closures in one direction along the freeway.
Finally, construction on Oahu’s rail transit project has started to move eastward into town, shutting down lanes along Kamehameha Highway and other streets. The project will also cause delays this summer when crews work to extend the elevated transit project’s guideway over the point where the H-1 and H-2 freeways merge.
HART Executive Director Dan Grabauskas recently described the rail-related traffic impacts, expected to last through 2018, as "the one step backward." However, he added, rail will provide "two steps forward" in addressing Oahu’s traffic woes once that system is operating.
