HRTPO recently released the 2022 edition of the Annual Roadway Performance Report.  The report is produced as part of the region’s Performance Management effort and the Congestion Management Process (CMP), an on-going process that identifies, develops, evaluates, and implements transportation strategies to enhance mobility regionwide.  The report includes a wide variety of information on the performance of the roadway system in Hampton Roads, including:

Regional Roadway Travel Levels - In Hampton Roads there are approximately 80 locations equipped with continuous count stations, where traffic volume data is collected continuously throughout the entire year.  Based on the data collected at these locations, regional traffic volumes are still below the levels seen prior to the pandemic.  Regional roadway travel increased 10.4% from 2020 to 2021, after decreasing 13.8% from 2019 to 2020.  Roadway travel levels in 2021 are comparable to what was experienced in the region in the middle of last decade.

Regional Peak Period Congestion Levels – Peak period congestion in Hampton Roads has increased since the height of the pandemic, but has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.  Among major roadways, 3% of the lane-miles[i] in Hampton Roads were severely congested during the morning peak travel period in 2021 and 8% of lane-miles were severely congested during the afternoon peak travel period.  While this is an increase from the levels seen in 2020 during the pandemic, they remain lower than the congestion seen prior to the pandemic in 2019.

Peak Period Travel Times on Major Corridors - HRTPO staff analyzed how peak period travel times have changed over the last few years on ten major corridors in Hampton Roads.  As an example, peak period travel times for the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT) are shown below.

Average travel times at the HRBT have returned to the pre-pandemic levels in the westbound direction during both the morning and afternoon peak travel periods, while travel times in the eastbound direction are still below the levels seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Similar analyses of peak travel times along the other major corridors are included in the report.