With less traffic due to quarantines, drivers are speeding more frequently across the U.S.

By Rachel Mills

Traffic has dramatically decreased in the United States because of quarantines and stay-at-home orders, and drivers more likely to speed on the open roads, according to The New York Times.

The NYT also reports traffic levels have dropped more than 90 percent in some major cities, and at least 50 percent nearly everywhere.

In New York City over 14 days in mid-March, traffic reportedly dropped 71 percent as speed cameras caught 12 percent more infractions than during a comparable period in January. The average speed on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway has gone from 13 miles per hour to 52.

California Highway Patrol Officer Jim Bettencourt said there is usually bumper-to-bumper traffic on San Diego County freeways during peak commute times. But far fewer cars have been on the roads lately, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

“With no traffic, people are pushing the envelope a little more. The crashes are a little more dynamic, fewer fender-benders,” he said. “Almost every one has an ambulance responding.

In California, the spike in speeding tickets for driving more than 100 miles per hour — 543 citations written by the highway patrol over 10 days in March — grew in inverse proportion to the cars on the road, according to The NYT.