Eight Months of Data Now Available on One-Stop Interactive Highway Hot Spots & Volumes Tracker

San Diego CA— SANDAG has officially unveiled a new interactive data map that tracks travel patterns on local highways amid the pandemic. Since the statewide stay home order was put in place, SANDAG has continued to monitor the effects of COVID-19 on the economy and travel in the San Diego region.
The new SANDAG Highway Hot Spots & Volumes Tracker Highway Hot Spots & Volumes Trackeris a one-stop data source that tracks weekday month-by-month vehicle miles traveled on local highways, including traffic speeds and average daily traffic volumes. The data available on the tracker includes March through October 2020, and users can also compare current data to the same time in 2019. The SANDAG tracker will be updated monthly.
“This new tool is intended to be a resource to assist community members and local leaders with current traffic data to make regional decisions,” said SANDAG Director of Research and Program Management Dr. Cynthia Burke. “The Highway Hot Spots & Volume Tracker Highway Hot Spots & Volumes Trackerhas shown us that the greatest drop in traffic volumes this year were seen in April when we were down 44%, compared to the same time last year.”
The SANDAG tracker also shows that between June and October, traffic volumes hovered between 15% and 16%. The number of vehicle miles traveled on our eight local highways reflected this pattern. Data shows that in October, traffic remained lowest on SR 163, which was down 29%, compared to October 2019, and that SR 78 and I-805 were the closest to last year’s figures at this time (down 11% and 13%, respectively).
The SANDAG Highway Hot Spots & Volumes Tracker offers multiple ways to interact with and explore the data, such as filtering to focus on points of interest and selecting data points in the chart to make simultaneous comparisons. For a guide to help navigate through the Highway Hot Spots & Volumes Tracker, visit sandag.org/highwaytracker.
The ten San Diego region hotspots monitored in the Highway Hot Spots & Volumes Tracker include:

• Southbound I-15 at Deer Springs Road
• Eastbound SR 78 at Barham Drive
• Southbound I-5 at Manchester Avenue
• Northbound I-805 at Governor Drive
• Westbound SR 52 at Mast Boulevard
• Westbound I-8 at Waring Road
• Northbound I-805 at I-15
• Northbound I-5 at E Street
• Southbound I-5 at Sea World Drive
• Northbound 1-805 at El Cajon Boulevard

Speed data at each of the hot spots during morning peak periods revealed that in October, speeds were up an average of about 6 MPH, compared to March. The biggest increases were seen at Northbound I-805 at I-15 (13.7 MPH faster in October) and Westbound I-8 at Waring Road (10.5 MPH faster). The average speeds at these ten locations on average was 57.5 MPH in March, then varied between 64.2 and 65.6 April through September and was down to 63.6 in October.

About SANDAG

The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) is the San Diego region’s primary public planning, transportation, and research agency, providing the public forum for regional policy decisions about growth, transportation planning and construction, environmental management, housing, open space, energy, public safety, and binational topics. SANDAG is governed by a Board of Directors composed of mayors, council members, and supervisors from each of the region’s 18 cities and the county government.
To protect the health and safety of staff, partners, and the public, SANDAG offices are closed to the public. Staff continues to review the calendar of events and will recommend changes, cancellations, or postponements on a case by case basis. Most employees are working remotely during this time to provide essential services, and to continue progress on critical regional projects. SANDAG continues to monitor the development of COVID-19 in the region and follow guidance from the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency.
 

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