Department of Transportation: Federal Highway Administration
Office of Operations home

Travel Time Reliability:
Making It There On Time, All The Time


Return to Report

This figure shows a line chart of daily travel times for a four-month period. A widely fluctuating line is shown that represents average weekday travel times. Several days from this fluctuating line are highlighted with events that might have caused the fluctuation, such as "2 incidents with rain," "3 incidents," "4 incidents," and "rain." The chart shows an average travel time of 18 minutes, but about half of the weekdays have longer travel times than this average.

Figure 2. Commuters plan trips based on the worst days, not the average day

This figure shows a line chart of daily travel times for a four-month period.

Source: Traffic Congestion and Reliability: Trends and Advanced Strategies for Congestion Mitigation, September 1, 2005, available at http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/congestion_report/.


Back to Top

Office of Operations