Gridlock in the U.S. Hits Bottom According to INRIX National Traffic Scorecard

Study shows increases in travel time in first half of 2009 due to stabilizing
economy, stimulus-funded road construction and low fuel prices

KIRKLAND, Wash., Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- INRIX(R), a leading provider of
traffic and navigation services in North America, today announced a mid-year
INRIX National Traffic Scorecard special report, which found that traffic
gridlock, during peak periods on major roads in urban America, had reached its
low point in the second quarter of 2009 and has now started to increase.
Traffic congestion across the country is rising due to signs of economic
recovery, initial rollouts of highway construction projects funded by federal
stimulus packages, and lower fuel prices. In fact, 64 of the top 100 most
populated cities in the U.S. experienced increases in traffic congestion
levels in early 2009. The annual INRIX Scorecard contains the most accurate
and current information in the country regarding overall congestion and
bottlenecks on America's major roadways, and is compiled using tens of
billions of data points from INRIX's network of over one million GPS-enabled
cars and trucks traveling across nearly one million miles of roads.

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An especially interesting nugget from the Scorecard showed that Las Vegas
experienced the biggest increase (2.4%) in travel times during peak commute
periods year-over-year, most likely due to major construction along I-15 that
began in the Summer of 2008. Other noteworthy increases include Baton Rouge
(1.9%) - which was the only region that experienced travel time increases in
2008 - and Washington, DC (1.8%) - seemingly unaffected by the nation's
economic turmoil of the past year. Cities with the largest decrease in travel
times include Ogden, UT (-5.6%), Bridgeport, CT (-4.5%), San Francisco
(-2.8%), San Diego (-2.7%) and Chicago (-2.7%). Reasons for the drops in each
region vary, for example, the completion of a major road construction project
in late 2008 and improved winter weather in 2009 contributed to Ogden's
decrease, and softer economic conditions hit Chicago, where unemployment
surpassed 11% in June 2009.

INRIX also analyzed and ranked the worst metro traffic bottlenecks across the
country and found that New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago continued to
dominate the rankings in commuting nightmares. Westbound on the Cross Bronx
Expressway (I-95) in New York City remains the worst bottleneck in the nation,
where traffic crawls more than 90 hours each week at an average of only 11
MPH.

"Traffic congestion decreased over the past 18 months and hit bottom in the
second quarter of 2009. Now, our nation's roadways are starting to jam up
again," said Bryan Mistele, INRIX president and CEO. "Traffic is a great
indicator of the pulse of the economy and as the economy improves we expect
gridlock to head towards 2007's record levels as people return to work,
freight transportation increases, and consumers switch back to vacations from
staycations."

By analyzing traffic on major highways in the nation's 100 largest
metropolitan areas, the Scorecard provides the most comprehensive and national
scale glimpse into the intractable issues of urban traffic congestion.
According to the report, the top 10 most congested cities in the first half of
2009 were:

1. Los Angeles, Calif.
2. New York, N.Y.
3. Chicago, Ill.
4. Washington, D.C. (from 5th in first half of 2008)
5. Dallas, Texas (from 4th in first half of 2008)
6. Houston, Texas
7. San Francisco, Calif.
8. Boston, Mass.
9. Seattle, Wash.

10. Philadelphia, Pa.

Additionally, available for the first time anywhere, INRIX analyzed
information from its vast data warehouse to provide a snapshot of commercial
freight traffic concentration. As a result, INRIX found that while the
nation's busiest long haul freight roadways cut across 28 states, more than
95% of this mileage comes from just 10 states - including Arkansas, Georgia,
Tennessee and Texas. Roads that serve as thoroughfares in the middle of the
country - such as I-40, I-75, I-81 and I-35 - show more relative long haul
freight usage in general than the roads at the edges of the country, such as
I-5 and I-95.

"Our findings highlight the national interconnectivity of the truck and
highway portion of our national freight system and demonstrate that changes in
freight movement trends and the effects of system improvements can have a
significant impact on overall traffic congestion," said Rick Schuman, vice
president of public sector, INRIX. "The analysis highlights that long haul
freight movement is spread equally between urban and rural roadways,
underscoring that the development of a national freight strategy to optimize
highway network efficiency and reliability - for both trucks and passenger
vehicles - is in the interest of both rural and urban constituencies."

The State Of Traffic:
-- The typical urban commuter sits 30 hours a year in slow traffic
-- Los Angeles has the nation's highest metropolitan travel times
during peak commute hours, followed closely by Honolulu. Drivers in
both
cities spend an extra nine minutes on the roads for what would be a 30
minute commute without traffic.
-- Washington, DC moved up to 3rd (from 6th in the first half of 2008)
with
drivers losing over six minutes on average for 30 minute commutes.
-- L.A., D.C. and Dallas were the only cities in the Top 10 that
experienced increased congestion
-- Among the most congested cities in terms of travel times, Baton
Rouge's ranking saw the biggest jump, moving from 22nd in 2008 to
13th. San Diego had the biggest drop, from 13th to 19th, with
commuters
in both cities losing 30-40 minutes per week stuck in traffic.
-- Delays in evening peak commute periods were higher than their
corresponding morning peak periods every weekday. Wednesday, 8-9 a.m.
continues as the busiest morning peak hour nationwide and Friday, 5-6
p.m. continues as the busiest evening peak hour - when commutes that
would take drivers 60 minutes with no traffic, are now taking 70-71
minutes on average.
-- Across the country off-peak periods - mid-days, evenings, overnights
and
weekends - generally showed small increases in travel times from 2008
to
2009, likely indicating that work zones from construction and
maintenance activities have increased. This is a signal that
"stimulus projects" are starting to have a noticeable impact.

-- Over 2,500 miles of the nation's most important thoroughfares are
reliably congested more than five hours each week - an hour each work
day. Over 400 of these miles experience more than 4 hours of
congestion
each workday.

How Commuters Can Avoid Traffic
The good news for consumers is that there are now plenty of information
sources to help them deal with traffic. Real-time traffic information is now
available on services like Ford SYNC with Traffic, Directions, and
Information; the new highly-acclaimed INRIX Traffic! free iPhone application;
AT&T Navigator; MapQuest.com; 3D traffic forecasts on local broadcast TV
stations; and hundreds of mobile applications.

INRIX is continually exploring ways to help consumers, businesses and public
officials better understand the many issues that can affect the flow of
traffic and how to solve these problems in the future. In February 2009, INRIX
published its second annual INRIX National Traffic Scorecard. The report was
the first of its kind to rank and provide detailed information on the 100 most
congested U.S. metropolitan areas and the 100 worst traffic bottlenecks, all
based upon calendar year 2008 traffic information. The company also released
its first Scorecard Special Report, TheImpact of Fuel Prices on Consumer
Behavior and Traffic Congestion, in October of last year, analyzing how
volatile fuel prices affected traffic and consumer driving habits.

For more information about traffic in your city or to see the complete
National Traffic Scorecard, visit: http://inrix.com/scorecard/ and to view
videos about the report go to http://YouTube.com/INRIXTraffic.

About INRIX
INRIX(R) is the leading provider of traffic and navigation services in North
America. Built on a foundation that includes the world's largest crowd-sourced
traffic network, INRIX intelligently blends traffic information from hundreds
of sources to enable informed driving decisions and deliver smart solutions
that advance our customers' and partners' businesses.

INRIX crowd sources data from over one million GPS-enabled vehicles and mobile
devices. INRIX provides the broadest, most accurate and reliable real-time
traffic and navigation services for more than 160,000 miles of highways and
arterial roadways in North America and over 50,000 kilometers across 6
European countries, with real-time incident coverage for 16 European
countries. Over 80 customers rely on INRIX for their personal navigation,
mapping and location based service applications in the car, online and on
mobile devices for consumers requiring traffic and navigation information
anytime, anywhere. To experience the traffic technology revolution behind the
next generation of navigation and location-based service applications, visit
www.INRIX.com or follow INRIX on Twitter at http://twitter.com/INRIX.

INRIX is a registered trademark of INRIX, Inc. in the United States and/or
other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the
trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE INRIX

Jeanne Beach, +1-310-854-8231, jbeach@webershandwick.com, for INRIX