Traffic_2Our traffic partner, Inrix, published its National Traffic Scorecard Special Report yesterday.

Results show that 96 of the top 100 markets experienced a decrease in traffic for the first half of 2008 compared with the first half of 2007.

Nationwide, there was a 3% average decrease in travel times during peak hours.

The study did show, however, that two-thirds of consumers changed their driving habits as a result of higher gas prices.

Perhaps most interesting about the report was the ranking of cities when it came to finding a correlation between gas prices and traffic. You might think that cities with more commuters would have seen a decrease in traffic due to increased use of public transportation. However, LA, the worst congested city in America, ranked 20th; Chicago ranked 47th; Wash. DC ranked 53rd; and NYC ranked 69th.

Altanta ranked #1 – the city had one of the largest increases in gas prices (31% increase) which resulted in overall less traffic (4.4% decrease).