By Annie Jennemann

It’s not just you. Traffic during peak commute times is slower on some of the Baltimore area’s busiest highways — even compared with before the pandemic.

While Baltimore-area highways collectively aren’t quite as congested as they were five years ago, average speeds through some major bottlenecks have decreased during certain peak times, an analysis commissioned by The Baltimore Sun shows. That includes the Fort McHenry and Baltimore Harbor tunnels, where delays jumped after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March.

Using anonymized GPS data, traffic management and analysis company INRIX tracked vehicle speeds for highway segments that either start or end in Baltimore City or in the neighboring jurisdictions of Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County.

Based on data from the first Tuesday in September through the first Friday in October of this year, INRIX analyzed the data to identify the top five bottleneck corridors, then compared their traffic speeds with those for the corresponding post-Labor Day periods for each of the previous three years, and, for a pre-pandemic comparison, for 2019. A bottleneck forms when traffic jams up and is measured by the length of the corridor, duration of traffic and how often traffic jams, according to INRIX.

With more companies bringing employees back to the office and a Key Bridge replacement years away, here is a snapshot of the five chokepoints:

Fort McHenry Tunnel

Peak time for lowest average speed (Sept. 3 to Oct. 4, 2024): 23.42 mph at 4 p.m.

Peak time change from 2019: -21%

Posted speed limit: 55-65 mph

Average speeds along northbound I-95 from Montgomery Road near Elkridge through the Fort McHenry Tunnel dropped below 2019 averages this year, according to the data.

The Fort McHenry Tunnel is historically the busier of the harbor’s two tunnels and it experienced sharper increases in traffic than the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel the month after the Key Bridge collapsed, a Sun analysis from May showed.

Since 2022, this corridor’s speeds during the morning peak have been around pre-pandemic levels. The evening peak, however, was at a record low last month for the years analyzed, with speeds averaging 23.4 miles per hour from 4 to 5 p.m.

North Baltimore resident Hannah Muchnick, 30, said she sometimes drives this corridor on her way back home from her museum pest management job in Prince George’s County. The Hoes Heights resident estimated that the Key Bridge’s closure has added 10 to 15 minutes to her trip home, even when she avoids this bottleneck.

“With the Key Bridge being down, I am not directly impacted, like my commute would never have crossed the Key Bridge, but other people’s traffic on 95 and around 95 and the harbor of the city, that’s my gateway to get back home at the end of the day,” Muchnick said.

Baltimore Harbor Tunnel

Peak time for lowest average speed (Sept. 3 to Oct. 4, 2024): 19.17 mph at 8 a.m.

Peak time change from 2019: -0.8%

Posted speed limit: 50-55 mph

Southbound I-895 from Rosedale through the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel by far had the slowest average hourly speeds in 2024 of the five corridors analyzed. The Harbor Tunnel corridor’s average speed of 19.17 mph from 8 to 9 a.m. was the lowest of any time slot in any corridor.

Last month, the corridor’s average speeds for the morning peak were just below 2019 levels. For the afternoon and evening commute peak, traffic was not nearly as slow and was still above pre-pandemic levels.

On a 7.5-mile stretch of highway like this one, a trip averaging 20 mph is seven and a half minutes longer than a trip averaging 30 mph and 15 minutes longer than a trip averaging 60 mph.

From lost time to increased emissions, slowdowns have negative consequences for drivers and others, and, according to Zhiqing Zhou, an associate professor for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the downsides are generally what researchers have focused on. But more recently research has turned to whether commuters can use that time to detach from work or family responsibilities.

“These opportunities might offer some time off from either work or family responsibilities as a recovery experience, which may have a potentially positive implication for mental health and well-being,” said Zhou, who works in the Department of Mental Health at Hopkins and whose research focuses on workplace mental health. “But this is not shattering the fact that long commutes, either by driving or public transportation, may negatively affect workers’ mental health, well-being and physical health.”

I-695 Inner Loop (clockwise) from I-97 to Dogwood Road

Peak time for lowest average speed (Sept. 3 to Oct. 4, 2024): 22.76 mph at 4 p.m.

Peak time change from 2019: -4.8%

Posted speed limit: 55 mph

On the Inner Loop of I-695 between I-97 and Dogwood Road, traffic is the slowest during the afternoon and evening commutes. Last month, average speeds were lower than before the pandemic with the slowest hour from 4 to 5 p.m. at 22.76 mph.

Average afternoon speeds have dropped below 2019’s, with the steepest decrease an over 19% dip at 2 p.m.

I-695 Inner Loop (clockwise) from Arbutus to Joppa Road

Peak time for lowest average speed (Sept. 3 to Oct. 4, 2024): 25.8 mph at 4 p.m.

Peak time change from 2019: -3.7%

Posted speed limit: 55 mph

On the Inner Loop of the Baltimore Beltway from Arbutus to Joppa Road, the morning and evening commutes have roughly the same average speeds. While this year’s morning speeds were similar to prior years, averages for the afternoon peak were at least 3.5 to 4.5 mph slower from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

This bottleneck overlaps with the one that from I-97 to Dogwood Road, but INRIX considered them separately because they bottleneck at different times. Data from last month showed that each Beltway bottleneck had a peak slow hour at 4 p.m., but for the Arbutus-to-Joppa Road corridor, the peak was 8 a.m. from 2021 to 2023.

I-97 southbound from Benfield Road to Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds

Peak time for lowest average speed (Sept. 3 to Oct. 4, 2024): 27.24 mph at 8 a.m.

Peak time change from 2019: -3.34%

Posted speed limit: 65 mph

The last bottleneck, southbound I-97 from Benfield Road to the Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds, is the only one completely outside the Baltimore Beltway. It also experienced slightly different trends than other congested areas.

During the afternoon peak, the average speed has been slowing since 2022. This year’s 3 to 6 p.m. speeds were the lowest the corridor experienced in the afternoon over the five years studied, with the lowest hitting 28.16 miles per hour.

This corridor’s peak hour for the slowest traffic occurs during the morning commute, but this year’s average speeds weren’t as low as 2019’s.

Have a news tip? Contact Annie Jennemann at ajennemann@baltsun.com, 443-380-0137 and x.com/AnnieJennemann.