New York City Looks to Test More and Keep Classrooms Open

In the early days of the pandemic, when people were grasping for silver linings, many would point to the reduction in traffic. Streets, long clogged by cars or trucks, were repurposed for other activities, like impromptu sports and parties. Fewer vehicles meant less pollution. Instead of spending hours on congested roads, people could be more productive at work or spend time with their family.

But now, a new reality has set in: traffic in New York City is back, it is bad and it is likely going to get worse.

New York City topped a 2021 scorecard of the country’s most congested urban areas, with drivers losing an average of 102 hours annually to congestion, almost three times the national average, according to INRIX, an analytics company. City officials have revived gridlock alert days to warn people to avoid certain parts of the city and use public transit instead.

At major crossings to New York from New Jersey — including the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels — vehicle traffic has reached 99 percent of prepandemic levels with 10.4 million vehicles in October, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The increase in traffic has been attributed to a few different things. The pandemic has prompted people to avoid public transit and car pooling, people are increasingly buying cars and there are more delivery trucks on the streets trying to keep up with an e-commerce boom.

The traffic has been particularly notable outside of Manhattan.

The city’s most congested artery has become the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, where since 2019 the average travel speed has dropped during the morning rush by 19 percent to 21.5 miles per hour, according to INRIX. Average traffic speeds have fallen on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, the Long Island Expressway and Grand Central Parkway in Queens and on the Cross Bronx Expressway.

A half-dozen neighborhoods had more vehicle trips in September and October than in the same period in 2019, according to StreetLight Data, an analytics company. In St. Albans, Queens, vehicle trips rose 4.8 percent, followed by North Bushwick in Brooklyn at 4.6 percent and Bronxdale in the Bronx at 4.3 percent.