A NEW DASHBOARD showing average travel times on roadways coming into and out of Boston indicates more people working hybrid schedules are driving in the middle part of the week rather than at the beginning or the end.
“We’re seeing a pattern on a number of these roadways. The new work week seems to be Tuesday through Thursday,” said Massachusetts Highway Commissioner Jonathan Gulliver.
Gulliver briefed the Massachusetts Department of Transportation board on the new dashboard Wednesday and said it will go live in a couple weeks.
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About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
The highway commissioner cautioned that traffic patterns remain unsettled and will remain so until most businesses order their employees back to the office. But he said the new dashbcoard isolates patterns in a bid to help drivers on flexibile schedules plan the best time to come into the office. “You can start building your commute around it,” he said.
The dashboard analyzes travel data from the previous four weeks and compiles average travel times throughout the day on the major arteries coming in and out of the city. MassDOT is hoping commuters will use the dashboard to save time by traveling at off-peak times, which would help spread out traffic and ease congestion for all drivers.
Gulliver said the new dashboard is a planning tool and is not designed to find the best route to a destination when the traveler is leaving immediately.
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