Commuting and Traffic in Charlottesville

I noted five years ago that Charlottesville’s traffic’s perspective wasn’t that bad, when put into the appropriate perspective.

In the years since I wrote that article, traffic hasn’t gotten any more tolerable and the City and County continue to demonstrate an astonishing capability to do nothing – expensively. (see: Places 29)

That said,

One of the most important things to note to those moving to Charlottesville is that the region is becoming more and more segmented – if you live in the 29 North area, there’s usually little reason to leave 29 North except for work –  same with Crozet, Pantops, City of Charlottesville, etc. Urban Cores matter.

But – if you live and work in the City of Charlottesville or the urban ring (or really, any part of) Albemarle County, your commute is likely to be not beyond 25 or 30 minutes. The following infographic* shows some useful data points about the value of a short commute.

For now, I’d like to think that the Charlottesville area offers a reasonably high quality of life, and the commuting isn’t that bad.

Five years from now – we’ll see.

** I’m baffled/infuriated that with all the information the US Census gathers, they no longer seem to (or I can’t find) publish the County-to-County worker information (no longer available).