The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) reported Friday that many of the U.S. major roadways continue to experience significant impacts from COVID-19 pandemic.
Five months into the national health emergency, the international association for organizations involved in the tolling industry has re-evaluated its report “The State of U.S. Transportation During the COVID-19 Pandemic” to reflect the ongoing impact the pandemic is having on traffic, revenues and operations for the country’s transportation systems.
While travel is down across the country, planning for when travel returns to normal is difficult, the group said.
“Tolled roads, bridges, and tunnels throughout the country have seen a dramatic reduction of traffic over the last five months, and while we are seeing some increase in volume, projecting when traffic will return to pre-pandemic levels is extremely challenging,” Samuel Johnson, IBTTA President and Interim CEO of the Transportation Corridor Agencies in Irvine, California said. “The pandemic has presented monumental challenges and opportunities in planning for the rebalancing of demand across modes including transit and especially with teleworking achieving recognition as a strong and viable alternative. These changes in mode choice will likely shift over the next couple of years, but the tolling industry will continue to be a strong contributor to the movement of goods and people.”
The pandemic, the group said, is changing transportation and transportation funding. Reduced revenues, changes in driver behaviors, and changes to operational systems will lead to difficult decisions about capital improvement projects and transportation systems as they exist today.
Transportation leaders across the country weighed in on the state of their operations.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey reported that while traffic was down 60 percent in the first week of April when compared to the same time frame in 2019, traffic was down only 14 percent during the first week of August.
“In a world that will have more telecommuting and some shift of transit riders to driving, we’re in a position where we will be serving a growing number of motorists that travel less frequently, and we will need to find ways to embrace them as customers. Focusing on how we evolve and transform our approach to the business may end up serving us much better than just focusing on how we recover,” said Mark Muriello, Deputy Director of Tunnels, Bridges and Terminals, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Officials with the New Jersey Turnpike said traffic was down 69 percent between March 28 and April 3 but was only down 27 percent between Aug. 1 and 7. In Ohio, officials reported traffic levels were down less than 50 percent in April, compared to less than 16 percent in August. And in Georgia, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority said traffic was down 79 percent the first week of April and down 53 percent in the first week of August.