{"id":213578,"date":"2026-03-20T23:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T23:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/213578\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T23:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T23:01:09","slug":"houston-drivers-losing-nearly-2000-a-year-to-traffic-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/213578\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston drivers losing nearly $2,000 a year to traffic, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2013 High gas prices are already straining wallets across Houston, but the real cost of commuting may be even higher than many drivers realize.<\/p>\n

A new study from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute shows<\/a> the average Houston driver spends about 77 hours a year sitting in traffic. That lost time also translates into wasted gas, about 23 gallons annually, and a total cost of roughly $1,819 per commuter each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t take it very long to figure out as this price of fuel goes up, you\u2019re going to feel it in your pocket,\u201d said David Schrank, a senior research scientist with the institute.<\/p>\n

The average Houston commute is already about 27 minutes each way, slightly above the national average, according to Census data<\/a>. Add congestion, and both time and costs climb quickly.<\/p>\n

Schrank says even small increases in gas prices can have a big impact. For example, a 20-mile commute in a car that gets 20 miles per gallon uses about 500 gallons of fuel per year. If gas prices rise by just $1 per gallon, that adds $500 annually to commuting costs alone, Schrank explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time you hop in your car, you know it\u2019s costing you money,\u201d Schrank said. \u201cWhen fuel prices go up, that cost is going to climb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alternatives gaining attention<\/p>\n

With costs rising, public transportation advocates say more Houstonians are exploring alternatives to driving alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to do it every day,\u201d said Robin Holzer, executive director of Link Houston. \u201cEven if you just change one trip a week, that can give you back some slack in your budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holzer notes commuting to work is only about one out of every five trips people take.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s going to the grocery store, school pickup, or meeting friends, getting out of the car for even one of those trips can help,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

One example is the METRO Route 82, one of the busiest bus routes in the state, Holzer said, runs from West Oaks Mall along Highway 6 into downtown Houston.<\/p>\n

For longer commutes, park-and-ride services offer another option, with locations across the region, including Cypress, the Grand Parkway, the Bay Area, and Spring. Riders can travel from designated lots directly into downtown, often using high-occupancy vehicle lanes to bypass traffic.<\/p>\n

METRO <\/a>also offers vanpool programs, where groups of coworkers share a ride in a company-provided vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not here to tell you how to get where you need to go,\u201d Holzer said. \u201cWhat we hear is that Houstonians want options.\u201d<\/p>\n

As fuel prices remain high, experts say even minor changes can make a difference whether it\u2019s taking the bus, carpooling, or skipping one drive a week.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 High gas prices are already straining wallets across Houston, but the real cost of commuting may…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,83628,83631,76233,58,57,83632,83630,83629],"class_list":["post-213578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-commute-alternatives","tag-houston-congestion","tag-houston-gas-prices","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-houston-public-transportation","tag-metro-bus-routes","tag-park-and-ride-houston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}