Guest written by Noam Maital, CEO of Waycare
Over the last few months, cities around the US have reported drastic reductions in traffic congestion which can be directly linked to the shelter-in-place guidelines. With less congestion on the roads, less crashes have also been recorded. Findings reported from the City of Las Vegas seem to further prove this concept. By Waycare’s own measure, the city experienced about a 68% drop in incidents (see figure 1) between pre-COVID road conditions and during-COVID road conditions.
Figure 1: We compared average traffic incident numbers during the height of the COVID-19 stay-at-home period (March 12 – April 30) to incidents occurring prior to this period (Feb 1 – Mar 11). What we found was a massive drop in incidents occurring after stay-at-home restrictions were put in place.
What does less traffic congestion mean for drivers? Less cars on the road and thus more room to speed! Waycare is reporting consistent increases in speeding along major interstate highways like I-15 and US-95 in Las Vegas. For example on US-95 South, we found a 33% increase in speeding during the morning traffic peaks (7 to 8am on weekdays).
Figure 2: We compared average maximum speeds during the height of the COVID-19 stay-at-home period (March 12 – April 30) to maximum speeds occurring prior to this period (Feb 1 – Mar 11). What we found was a large increase in speeding occurring after stay-at-home restrictions were put in place.
While the temporary relief in congestion is encouraging, the overall rise in speed is a concern to safety. Waycare is currently analyzing the severity of car crashes during this time as a result of increased speeding and plans to share reports when they become available. It is important to monitor these patterns so that proper mitigation tactics can be developed and traffic fatalities can be kept on a downward curve.
About Waycare’s Partnership with RTC: The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) and Waycare, a cloud-based AI traffic management solution, started their partnership in 2017. In less than three years, Waycare has evolved from monitoring two stretches of highway in Las Vegas to enhancing traffic management solutions throughout Southern Nevada.
