Well, according to INRIX, a traffic-data firm, it’s bad enough to land it on the list of “Top 100 Cities with the Worst Traffic”, but just barely – in 2009, Colorado Springs ranked 91st. It’s up a little bit from 2008 – we were ranked 93 then – but down from 2007 in which we ranked 76 on the list.
Anyone who’s ever lived in a larger city and then moved to Colorado Springs is likely to say traffic is a non-issue – of course, roads are busy during morning and afternoon rush hours, but it’s pretty rare to be at a stand-still unless there’s an accident or road construction. (You could, of course, argue that there’s always road construction, but isn’t there everywhere?) The biggest complaint among local drivers is the lack of efficient east/west thoroughfares.
You can easily check traffic conditions in Colorado Springs with the city’s traffic camera map. It amplifies the lack of major east/west roads – there are only a handful of cameras off of north/south running Interstate 25 and Academy.
Relatedly, the average commuting time in Colorado Springs is 20.6 minutes according to the US Census Bureau. For comparison, Denverites have an average commute of 23.7 minutes.
