If the crowds at the outlet malls ringing Houston are any indication, people will happily drive for a bargain. For many, however, the cost of that trip or their commute doesn’t always compute.

With gas prices low, transportation officials have reported an uptick in driving, though some of that has eased of late because of layoffs in the oil and gas industry. Even as some energy workers search the want ads, growth has resulted in some freeways being as crowded as ever.

Some, such as Tory Gattis at the Center of Opportunity Urbanism and a frequent observer of local freeway projects, have noticed traffic worsening – albeit anecdotally. Gattis even theorized that one cause could be those energy workers finding new jobs that are scattering them around the area.

“Whenever people have to switch jobs within the metro area, they’re more likely to end up with a worse commute than a better one,” Gattis said. “Assuming they picked where they live based on the original job they no longer have.”

There might be some validity to Gattis' guess. According to TranStar average travel times, eastbound Interstate 10 west of downtown and the northbound portion of Loop 610 from Stella Link to Shepherd – two of the most congested freeway segments in the region – saw increases in the amount of time they were congested from 2012 to 2015, with a noticeable jump from 2014 to 2015.

Here are overall morning traffic trends in 2010.

And here they are for 2014.

The west Loop, a well-known congestion conundrum, was backed up 57 percent of the time during the afternoon in 2012. Two years later, the congestion had jumped to 61 percent of the time. In 2015, just one year later, it was congested 75 percent of the time.

Many freeways both inside the urban core and in the suburbs had similar leaps, according to the TranStar figures, though the worst freeway speeds in terms of congestion and gridlock are always in the downtown area and along Loop 610.

But a number of factors, such as construction, can influence those numbers, so it’s tough to say whether more people are making different trips or just more trips.

Whatever the cause, it’s taking money out of Houston-area drivers’ pockets, along with parking. Lending Tree, an online loan broker, recently studied the cost of commuting in 19 major American cities. The research was based on various reports about average commute distances and current gas and transit prices for each of the metro areas.

Houston, which along with Dallas had the longest commute distances in the study, actually was a cheaper place to get to work than many others, largely because of cheap fuel prices.

Parking, while pricey, didn't bring as much of a financial hit as in other cities. In Miami, Chicago and Philadelphia, it was cheaper or virtually the same cost to commute by Uber than drive and pay average parking fees each month.

In every city, including Houston, once researchers amended their study to correct a problem with calculating typical Metropolitan Transit Authority fare charges, transit was the least expensive way to travel.

Bus and rail, however, is a time-consuming way to make most Houston commutes, compared to driving. With so many workplaces offering free parking, many no doubt find the extra cost of driving solo worth it for the time savings.

Meanwhile Metro officials, who continue to tout the improvement in bus service from the system redesign that began 15 months ago, are contending with falling ridership.

In October, the first month of Metro’s fiscal year, the total number of boardings – each time someone got on a bus or train – was down 4.5 percent compared to October 2015. That’s a reversal from September, when total boardings were 5.6 percent higher in 2016 compare to 2015.

The two months are important because they are the first two full months where Metro’s ridership can be compared to early use of the new bus system, which started Aug. 15, 2015.

Officials blamed the decline on job losses in the region and possibly office relocations, which dropped park-and-ride use in October by 16.7 percent compared to the same month last year. Van pool use was also off 16 percent.

Kurt Luhrsen, Metro’s vice-president of planning, said losing those workers has effects across the entire system. Workers who rode park-and-ride buses downtown also hopped the rail to go to lunch and even make meetings outside the area.

Luhrsen and others said they are confident the decline is not a repudiation of the new bus system, which has won praise from some riders as a few others have complained of longer walks and other negative consequences.