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What is the most satisfying city in America for driving?
Greensboro, according to the first (2015) and second
(2016) annual driver satisfaction index conducted by
Waze.
Waze offers a mobile navigation
and driver assistance app
where drivers can provide data
on driving conditions and get
notifications about accidents
and other delays. For its
driver’s satisfaction index, Waze
analyzed the driving experience
of more than 65 million active Waze users in 38 countries
and 235 metro areas to create a Driver Satisfaction
Index. It gave each city a score ranging from satisfying
(10) to miserable (1).
The score combines Waze user ratings on traffic density
and severity; road quality and infrastructure; roadway
safety, including the density of accidents, road hazards,
and weather; driver services, such as gas stations and
easy parking; socioeconomic factors like access to
cars and the impact of gas prices; and “Wazeyness.”
Wazeyness reflects the happiness and helpfulness of
the Waze community, measured by how often drivers
thanked each other and driver moods selected within
the app.
Waze also found Greensboro is the fifth most satisfying
city in the world for drivers. Greensboro was only
bested by four mid-sized French cities: Valence, Tours,
Lemans, and Saint-Etienne.
Easing Congestion
Although Greensboro was long known as a 15-minute
city due to the high quality of the local roadway
network, things had gotten much worse by the year
2000. Various bottlenecks impeded traffic through
the area. The worst of these bottlenecks was on
Greensboro’s two major interstates, I-40 and I-85. At
just four to six lanes, these freeways carried more
than 100,000 vehicles per day. This was a recipe
for congestion, and meant travelers destined for
Greensboro or just passing through would often
experience heavy delays. But now, in 2017 interstate
traffic flows much more smoothly, and many of the
surface street bottlenecks have been eliminated.
Improved traffic flow is the direct result of hard work by
the City, the MPO, and the North Carolina Department
of Transportation (NCDOT) to plan, fund, and implement
projects to ease congestion. Freeway improvements
included first widening I-40 through the City and then
Urban Loop (also know as I-840) construction. Most
recently, NCDOT completed a 6-mile I-73 connector
between NC 68 and US 220. Widenings of Guilford
College Road, High Point Road, and US 220 also made a
dent, among others.
Greensboro has an additional tool to keep traffic
flowing: its new state of the art signal system. Recipient
of the 2015 Best Project of the Year Award from the
Institute of Transportation Engineers, the signal system
uses IP/Ethernet communications over fiber optic cable,
and a greatly
enhanced
network of
closed-circuit
television
cameras to
reduce delays
at traffic signals.
The system
enables the City
to synchronize
traffic signals
to a much
greater degree,
introducing
greater vehicle
progression to
areas that had
experienced
frequent
congestion. The
use of more
efficient left turn
signalization is
a part of this.
One of the best
features of this
system is that
the technology it
uses can be easily
upgraded in the
Greensboro Ranks No. 1 Among Drivers
E N G I N E E R I N G
Top Five U.S. Cities (Over
200K Population) for
Driver Satisfaction:
1. Greensboro, North Carolina
Driver Satisfaction of 8.24
2. Grand Rapids, Michigan
Driver Satisfaction of 7.88
3. Cleveland, Ohio
Driver Satisfaction of 7.84
4. St. Louis, Missouri
Driver Satisfaction of 7.80
5. Dayton, Ohio
Driver Satisfaction of 7.78
Bottom Five U.S. Cities
(Over 200K Population)
for Driver Satisfaction:
1. Honolulu, Hawaii
Driver Satisfaction of 4.35
2. Memphis, Tennessee
Driver Satisfaction of 5.47
3. San Diego, California
Driver Satisfaction of 5.49
4. Portland, Oregon
Driver Satisfaction of 5.77
5. Los Angeles, California
Driver Satisfaction of 6.1