SAN ANTONIO – The pandemic has changed traffic patterns across the country, including in San Antonio. As more people work or go to school from home, a new study finds a major impact on collisions on the region’s highways.
The traffic analytics firm INRIX found San Antonio ranked fifth among the top 25 U.S. metro areas for the largest reduction in collisions since the pandemic began. They dropped by 33% overall.
INRIX looked at 70 hotspots across the country and compared the number of collisions to those in the past. The top hotspot in San Antonio is I-37 at I-35 downtown, where collisions dropped by 28%.
The top overall corridor for collisions in San Antonio is Loop 410, where collisions also saw a 28% decline.
INRIX also found speeds have increased across the San Antonio region, by 26% in the early months of the pandemic and by 13% more recently.
Experts said the increase in speed is another sign of decreased congestion, but it also suggests that the collisions that do happen can be more deadly.
Finally, INRIX looked at vehicle miles traveled, a measure of how much traffic is out there.
It dropped by one-third in San Antonio in the early months of the pandemic, by 22 percent from July to October.
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