Seattle is seeing less post-pandemic car traffic than other big cities

When compared to pre-pandemic levels, less car traffic is returning to downtown Seattle than to the cores of most other large American cities, according to new data from the traffic analytics firm INRIX.

One major caveat: Because downtown Seattle does not include South Lake Union in INRIX’s analysis, Amazon’s return to in-person work is not captured in the data.

That said, Seattle is still 27% below its pre-pandemic inflow to downtown, a lower rate than just four other cities: Los Angeles; Sacramento, Calif.; Detroit; and San Francisco, which is down 41%.

Except for Phoenix and San Diego, every city still sees fewer people driving into their downtowns than in 2019. However, a handful of cities, including Denver; Tampa, Fla.; New York; Boston; and Atlanta, are creeping back to those same levels.