How has working from home affected Bay Area traffic?

(KRON) – Many of us might be happy to see people on the streets again since the pandemic, but car commuters aren’t.

The good news for car commuters, however, is that nearly 14% of workers have had Work-from-Home (WFH) hours incorporated into their weekly work schedule since the pandemic, and some of the Bay Area is reaping the benefits, according to a recently published study.

WFH rates nearly tripled from 2019 to 2023, with the highest adoption rates being from Northern California. Sacramento saw the highest adoption rates with a 236% increase from 2019 to 2023, with San Jose at second with a 236% increase and San Francisco at third with a 230% increase. 

Interestingly, however, only two of the three Northern California metros listed have seen a decrease in traffic congestion. According to the study, Sacramento recorded a 12% drop in overall traffic, with San Jose recording a 9% drop. San Francisco’s congestion has increased by 6% since 2019, according to the study.

Despite seeing an increase in WFH adoption rates, cities like San Francisco have still recorded increased traffic congestion. San Francisco isn't alone, as other western cities like Tucson and Salt Lake City, Utah had an increase in congestion overall, researchers said.

The study credits the increase in traffic congestion to these said cities still having reliant in person work sectors such as construction and real estate. 

In-person work aside, new estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau also show more tan 250,000 people have moved to a city like Tucson in the past year, with close to a quarter arriving from another country, and more than 54,000 Californians recorded, marking a large increase in domestic migration. 

This study, conducted by Coworking Cafe, used traffic congestion data from TomTom and remote work data from the U.S. Census Bureau as its methodology. More information can be found here.