INRIX National Traffic Scorecard Special Report Reveals the Impact of Changing Fuel Costs on Traffic and Consumer Driving Habits in 2008

Fuel prices have higher influence on traffic in Atlanta, Miami, Las Vegas and L.A. than in NYC, D.C., Chicago

Top 10 cities with the strongest and most significant correlation between Gas Price and TTI INRIX® today released its INRIX National Traffic Scorecard Special Report, showing the effects of fuel prices on consumer driving behaviors and traffic across the country. Have consumers changed their driving habits as a result of fluctuating gas prices? Which cities have been affected the most by the surge in fuel costs earlier this year? At what price per gallon will consumers reach their boiling point? What impact on traffic and consumer behavior can we expect, particularly with the current economic crisis, as gas prices fall or rise in the future? This new free special report, The Impact of Fuel Prices on Consumer Behavior and Traffic Congestion, available at http://scorecard.INRIX.com, answers these questions and many more. The Special Report features an analysis of traffic patterns during the first half of 2008, an INRIX correlation of traffic against fuel prices from OPIS (Oil Price Information Service), as well as a Harris Interactive Survey, conducted in October 2008, of over 2,000 consumers about their behaviors and attitudes. Along with hundreds of significant findings, the report reveals: 96 of the nation’s top 100 markets (by population) had drops in traffic congestion levels in the first half of 2008 compared to 2007, with a 3% nationwide average decrease in travel times during peak hours The largest and most congested U.S. cities did not respond the same to changing gas prices. Fuel prices had significantly higher influence on traffic in L.A., Atlanta, Miami, Las Vegas than in NYC, D.C. and Chicago Two-thirds of consumers surveyed changed their driving behaviors as a result of higher gas prices, of whom 69% took fewer driving trips, 34% said they took shorter trips, 9% carpooled, and 7% used public transportation as an alternative choice to driving 75% of Midwesterners decreased their amount of driving, compared to those in the Northeast (60%), South (67%), and West (61%) A majority (55%) were willing to reduce the frequency or distance of vacations by car if prices rose to $4.50 per gallon or more Average Nationwide Retail Price of Gas and INRIX TTI by year The INRIX Special Report identifies how correlations between the change in gas prices and traffic congestion are due to a combination of socio-economic, political, demographic and psychographic factors.  For example, the report highlights that the impact of increasing gas prices on traffic congestion has a close relationship with the average monthly expenditure on gas as a proportion of average monthly income.  Across all income levels, clear majorities of survey respondents reported a decrease in their driving.  However, mirroring the cities with the highest correlations, there is an inverse relationship with income level and the percentage who answered this way. Those making less than $35K were most likely to have decreased their driving 76%, compared with 68% of those earning $35K to $74.9K, to just 57% for those earning $75K and higher. It is fascinating to see the disproportionate response that the impact of gas prices has on traffic. Additionally, although we can't predict the future price of fuel, we can predict the potential impacts to traffic congestion. As a whole, the population appears to have made lasting changes to their behavior, which we expect to persist at some level even if gas prices revert to pre-2007 levels.. Bryan Mistele, INRIX President & CEO      Los Angeles, the worst congested city, ranked 20th, while surprisingly, Chicago ranked 47th; Washington, DC 53rd; and New York came in 69th in terms of correlation of fuel price changes on traffic. Atlanta had one of the largest increases in gas prices in the country, but demonstrated remarkable capability to absorb expanded commuter travel on public transport by adding parking lots to accommodate all the new transit users and in some cases renting space from movie theaters and churches. Many cities exhibiting high correlation are those most impacted by vacation or leisure travel, particularly driving destination sites such as Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas and Daytona Beach. In Las Vegas, visits have been postponed or cancelled by over one-third of Southern California gamers who drive to Las Vegas, both as a function of the travel cost itself and also a function of reduced disposable income available for gaming trips. Willingness of consumers to change behavior based upon different fuel price points (Harris Interactive Survey) Download the free Scorecard Special Report Read the article from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Atlantans forced off road by gas prices Read the entire INRIX National Traffic Scorecard Special Report announcement INRIX in Forbes Compute Your Way Through Traffic INRIX was featured in a lengthy article by Jon Bruner in Forbes.com regarding our unique approach to aggregating, analyzing, and predicting traffic. Excerpt from the article: The Hairy Man Festival, the Austin Batfest and the U.S. Congress have two things in common: Any of them could leave you stuck in traffic, and they're all in the database at Inrix, a company that predicts traffic jams and routes drivers around them. Inrix's service is becoming a selling point for navigation device makers looking to stand out in an increasingly commoditized market. As more drivers get directions from GPS-enabled cellphones rather than specialized devices, services and data will take on new importance. Standalone GPS units can also receive Inrix data provided they have some kind of cellular or radio link. A variety of TomTom, Garmin and other GPS devices use Inrix data that's either been preloaded with maps or that is received via an add-on antenna or subscription via Bluetooth connection to a cellphone. Inrix's customers are other businesses rather than consumers directly. With navigation capability everywhere and consumers looking to tune in, Inrix chief Mistele says that his service can spread the adoption of connected GPS devices even more widely. "We can do for them what YouTube did for video." Inrix sells its data to more than 65 companies including MapQuest, TeleNav and Clear Channel Communications, which both uses it for its radio stations' traffic reports and repackages it for GPS subscribers. (There's even a hedge fund that uses Inrix's traffic levels to measure economic activity.) In all, about 3 million users subscribe to Inrix traffic data through their navigation systems and mobile phones, and tens of millions more use Inrix traffic through providers like MapQuest.... Read the entire article 'Compute Your Way Through Traffic