Traffic in the Bay Area

I have noticed over the years that the traffic issue has been exponentially growing and I've always wondered why it spiked so much. The Mercury News says that the traffic on major Bay Area freeways has grown 80% since 2010. My commute every morning from San Jose to Los Altos gives me a lot of time to think while I am stuck in traffic on both 85 and 280. I recently watched a film based in San Francisco that showcases the effects of gentrification over the years and how San Francisco has gotten to be a very expensive place to live. Nowadays, usually one of the only ways to be able to live in the Bay Area is to have a job in the technology industry. Silicon Valley has turned into the technology hub and that comes with a few cons. The people being pushed out of these cities are having to move farther away and commute back to their jobs in the city. Even some tech workers who can't afford to live close to their job will also be along side you in gridlock traffic at 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. in the morning and 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at night. Another effect of all this added traffic is the extra wear on the roads which lead the state to increase taxes especially on fuel. A diesel tax was added November 1st, 2017 to get more money to fix the roads. My father is a trucker and was heavily impacted by this tax because of the immense amount of fuel he has to buy each week to be able to transport freight all over. This tax hurts the consumers because in order to make up for the extra money going into fuel, the trucking companies raise the rates for businesses. Similarly, the businesses don't want to sacrifice any profits and therefore the pass on the raised prices to the everyday consumers. There is a huge chain of effects that have been caused by this increase in people and traffic in an area.