UCLA Luskin’s Michael Manville was quoted in a recent Los Angeles Times article analyzing why traffic congestion in Los Angeles remains persistently high despite modest year-over-year changes.

Manville, a professor and chair of urban planning at UCLA, said flat or slightly declining congestion levels are not surprising given the continued prevalence of remote and hybrid work. He also emphasized that traffic conditions in Los Angeles have long been severe, making dramatic improvement unlikely. “Things have always been pretty bad traffic-wise in L.A.,” Manville said.

Pointing to the region’s distinctive development patterns, Manville explained that Southern California’s moderate but widespread density creates a challenging transportation environment. While other metropolitan areas have dense downtowns that can support robust transit systems, Los Angeles is “not really dense enough in any area to really support public transportation, but dense enough to make traffic bad.” As Manville noted, this structural reality makes small improvements difficult for commuters to perceive.