Vehicle and WMATA traffic increases over the past two years in the DC area

Compared to Q1 2022, vehicle traffic and WMATA ridership during daytime hours have increased within DC. Across seven different traffic pins at major DC intersections, almost every pin that was tracked saw increases in each quarter compared to Q1 2022.

Southwest DC has the only decrease in comparison to Q1 2022, occurring in Q1 2024. This negative trend could be attributed to commuters taking alternative routes, such as WMATA buses or trains, taking different roads to get to their destination, or various construction projects. This trend is not expected to stay in the negative, with April 2024  traffic counts trending above what Q1 was.

WMATA trains and buses have seen the highest percent increase in traffic in comparison to the other traffic pins. In each of the past four quarters, ridership counts have been almost double than what they were in Q1 2022. This highlights the concentrated efforts that WMATA has made to increase efficiencies in wait time and security within their system.