Traffic

  One way I can tell the effect this economy has had on this region is by the traffic I see on my daily commute. It used to take me 35-40 minutes to commute back and forth but I've noticed it has dropped to 25 minutes. Lights that used to have a line of 50 cars waiting at the red light now have about 15. If I take the parkway, there are no backups. I've noticed a decrease since the past summer. Last year I attributed the lessening of traffic to summer (many people taking vacations) as well as the high gas prices forcing people to car pools. But the traffic didn't spike back up come September, nor with the drop of gas prices to < $2. And it really became noticable after the holidays.

I brought this up at work the other day and my co-workers agreed that traffic is much lighter compared to last year. I wonder how the traffic has been affected in other regions of country.