CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As more people head back to the office, we're seeing more people on the roads. That means more traffic. Some say it's worse in the morning. Others think roads are more clogged after quitting time.
THE QUESTION
Is the afternoon commute in Charlotte worse for traffic than the morning commute?
OUR SOURCES
- Jeff D'Arruda with NCDOT
- Jeroen Brouwer with the international traffic data analysis company, Tom-Tom
THE ANSWER
Yes, the afternoon commute in Charlotte is worse for traffic than the morning commute.
WHAT WE FOUND
D'Arruda and Brouwer said they gather traffic data about streets around Charlotte from various sources like Google maps, GPS technology inside cars, and traffic cameras managed by NCDOT.
"We have 165 cameras around Charlotte. So when we see the traffic building up, we actually dispatch one of our drivers to that area as well," D'Arruda said.
Brouwer said Tom-Tom can pin down the heavy points in the morning and afternoon commutes. Both he and D’arruda agree that your drive home from work is going to be worse.
"I know the morning rush hour, it is morning rush hours, they are heavy, but people go into work at different times. But everybody seems to go home at five o'clock. It's pretty big," D'Arruda said.
So what I see in our 21 statistics is that Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are pretty bad. And Friday as well, but it's Friday evening rush hour, it's longer. So it starts at 3:00 p.m. then it ends at 6 p.m.," Brouwer said.
Contact Meghan Bragg at mbragg@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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