New AAA Study Shows Commute Times Increasing As Roads Become More Crowded

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – If you feel like your commute is taking longer, you are right.

It is.

A new study by AAA says commute times in parts of the country have increased by as much as 40 minutes a week.

For South Florida, surprisingly, it is not that bad.

According to AAA, drivers are spending about a minute more per day than they did 5 years ago.

That adds up to an extra 5 to 7 minutes a week in the south.

"In the mornings it takes like 45 minutes. And then in the afternoon it takes about an hour," Veronica Lopez told CBS4.

Lopez has been driving from Kendall to Doral for almost 10 years.

"Here in Miami traffic has always been the worst. The commute has been the worst. I don't see it getting any better," she said.

Israel Lopez, no relation to Veronica, thinks his commute has increased more than 5 minutes a week.

"I think it's more. Not five minutes. I think 20 minutes," he said.

It could be worse.  AAA study found while commutes in the South have increased a minute a day, drivers in the Northeast and West have added an extra eight minutes to their drives.

That is an extra 40 minutes behind the wheel a week.

Milia Cowley has witnessed the increase on her 11 mile drive to work in Los Angeles. She does her best to deal with it.

"In the morning, sports radio… at night when I come home I want to relax so I listen to a lot of music, mostly 80's," Cowley said.

AAA says a number of factors are slowing things down on the road.

The strong economy has more people buying cars and with lower gas prices they're driving more.  All that leads to more congestion.

AAA Spokesperson Tamra Johnson explained, "When you add it all up across the driving public that's about 70 billion hours behind the wheel over the course of a year."

While some drivers put up with it, others are just about fed up.

"Hopefully in five years I won't be here.  Moving out of the city." Veronica Lopez told us.  She plans to head to a small town in Tennessee where traffic is non-existent.