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.
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.