Driving in through the Greensboro, North Carolina metro might not be as bad as you think, despite the fact that Interstates 85 and 40 both run right through the heart of Guilford County.
Though the Greensboro-High Point area ranks 71st nationally in population, it reached 91st in a list of traffic congestion in the country’s largest regions. That means that if you hate a bumper-to-bumper commute, but you live in Guilford County, North Carolina, you’re in luck; our region is among the top-ten least congested commutes in the United States.
“Compared to Los Angeles or New York or Chicago, drivers in Greensboro have it very good,” said Scott Sedlik, Vice President for INRIX, a company that gathered data for the comprehensive study.
The report considered traffic patterns on the interstate system and other major roads that have “interchanges, not intersections,” states an article on news-record.com. The study did not cover busy roads like Battleground Avenue, Wendover Avenue, High Point Road or Eastchester Drive. That might be why the company found 8 to 9 p.m. on Sunday evenings to be the most congested time of the week in the Guilford metro—commuters utilize I-85 and I-40 during that time to return from a weekend’s travel across the state, for example.
An old trouble spot was where Interstates 85 and 40 used to meet. The area in southern Greensboro that used to be called “death valley” has improved thanks to the new Urban Loop around the city. Now, INRIX researchers pronounce Greensboro and High Point free of bottlenecks because the area “has no road segments with an average speed of 30 mph or less during any hour.” Raleigh and Charlotte, on the other hand, still suffer from considerable congestion, ranking at 61st and 44th on the INRIX researchers’ list, respectively.
Still, as local commuters realize, the good news about our area’s interstate traffic might not apply to roads within cities and towns in Guilford County. These streets remain troublesome during rush hours, lunch breaks, shopping seasons, weekend nights and, well…you get the picture.
Though it’s good to know the Greensboro metro area could be plagued with worse traffic congestion, motorists should keep safety in mind no matter how smoothly the traffic seems to be moving. It only takes a fender-bender to block highway traffic for hours, and worse wrecks can cause injury and death.
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