I ten to eighty eight forty-five fifty
nine to ninety just hearing those
numbers might give you a little bit of
anxiety the daily commute from the
suburbs to downtown approaching an hour
on some of those freeways channel 2
investigates has been tracking commute
times for several years and tonight
we've got the latest numbers from trans
star investigator bill Spencer's
revealing who has the longest commute
and the construction projects ahead that
may bring you some relief Houston
traffic any way you slice at day or
night it can be an absolute nightmare
it's painful no matter which direction a
lot of stress a lot of waiting and a lot
of patience they don't want to cry
sometime pulling my hair out that's how
I feel see I've been in Houston a long
time
Danny Perez with the Texas Department of
Transportation says heavy Houston
traffic really doesn't hold to a
schedule anymore
traffic is not just like the old days
where it was a p.m. where you had the PM
rush but it was the the folks leaving
downtown for instance or the morning
rush folks going into downtown it's
always and everyone going all kinds of
different direction now channel 2
investigates is analyzing the latest
data from Transtar that's the agency
that tracks traffic to learn which
drivers have the very worst commutes we
start in League City and if you're
driving in on i-45 from 646 to downtown
at 7:30 in the morning you're spending
53 minutes in the car that time
consistent over the past few years from
Pearland taking 288 into downtown from
highway 6 takes nearly 40 minutes and it
may get even worse this year with all of
that construction but there is some
relief on the way we're calling it the
North Houston highway improvement
project that's going to put 45 from the
west side of downtown for instance to
the east side
behind the Georgia Brown behind there by
Minute Maid Park so you'll have 59 69 to
45 and that will run together within the
within the the the same area as opposed
to right now you have 45 on the west
side in the F 69 59 on the east side if
you're a Northside commuter the early
bird definitely gets the worm if you're
traveling down 45 from 1488 into
downtown your commute at 6:30 in the
morning is just over 46 minutes that's
down a whopping 10 minutes from the
previous year in Katy if you're headed
downtown in on i-10 from Pinole your
commute at 6:30 a.m. is also down
year-to-year down a full 11 minutes to
46 minutes and for those of you
traveling in on 290 want some big pain
with ongoing construction commute times
are actually improving your drivin from
Barker Cypress to downtown has dropped a
full seven minutes since 2015 to 45
minutes all told excuse the traffic's
bad but now that 290 is a little bit
better 16 in the gallery is the worst
the Galleria area a major choke point
and an area that's about to get even
more congested because of construction a
project to rebuild new connector ramps
at the West Loop and 59 is going to take
ready for this six full years to finish
but Perez says when it's done you will
see a big improvement we're improving
mobility through their proven safety
now I wish I could just wave some magic
wand around and take care of all these
traffic problems for you of course I
can't do that so I've done the next best
thing we've created two special links on
our website click the Houston comm just
go to the traffic section one of them
will tell you the very best time to
leave for your particular commute the
other one will actually tell you how
many other cars are on the roadway at
the same time you are that and of course
watch Jennifer Raina on channel 2 news
today
to find out where the latest traffic
tie-ups are minute by minute reporting
live on the 6 10 which is jacked up even
right now bill Spencer KPRC channel 2
investigates