Every few years, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute puts together an Urban Mobility Scorecard that looks at how traffic congestion affects residents in urban areas throughout the U.S, including Austin. Using traffic count data from the Texas Department of Transportation and speed data gathered by INRIX, a company that provides real-time traffic information, TTI is able to combine those numbers to create a traffic congestion index.

The traffic index tells commuters how much longer a trip will take during peak commute hours. The index uses 1.00 for the normal amount of time a trip takes if there were no congestion. Austin’s traffic congestion index is 1.33. This means that trips during peak commute times will take 33 percent, longer. For example, if it takes you 20 minutes to drive to the office in the middle of the night, it would take 26.6 minutes during peak commute hours.

More information about the effect of traffic congestion on residents, businesses and the city can be found in the Northwest Austin May edition of Community Impact Newspaper.