“Beat L.A.” is a familiar refrain in Bay Area sports, but it now appears Northern California is on its way to being a rival for Southern California in an unwelcome fashion: traffic jams.

Residents in the Bay Area have become discouraged about the heavy traffic in the region, with a dramatically expanding number of them indicating that traffic is worse than a year ago amid a huge surge in the local economy, a new poll released Friday by the Bay Area Council suggests.

“Bay Area residents are frustrated about traffic,” said Ruth Bernstein, senior principal with EMC Research, a firm that conducts market and opinion research. “It’s harder for them to get around. We definitely are seeing a backlash against the economic boom.”

Yet the traffic itself is but a symptom of what is going on rather than a cause, said Christopher Thornberg, principal executive with Beacon Economics.

“Traffic is a sign of growth, it is not an impediment to growth,” Thornberg said. “When you know the traffic is bad from point A to point B, you move away from point A in order to get to work at point B. You make some sacrifices in your lifestyle.”

Still, residents in the Bay Area appear to have become somewhat despondent about their transportation and traffic futures, according to the poll of 1,000 residents of the region.

An estimated 83 percent of people in the Bay Area believe that traffic will not improve in the crowded nine-county region over the foreseeable future, the poll found.

“It’s harder to get around, and it is harder to find transportation access and also access to housing,” Bernstein said.

An estimated 54 percent of the respondents believe it is more difficult to get around the Bay Area than it was a year ago, the poll determined. That’s up sharply from the 37 percent who felt that way in 2015 and more than double the 25 percent with that assessment in 2014.

“For a lot of our whining, we have a fairly functional traffic system in the Bay Area,” Thornberg said. “We are getting around. And now we have apps and phones and devices to help us. We just plan ahead more.”

In a reflection of the remarkable job boom in Silicon Valley, residents of Santa Clara County were found to be the most likely to say that traffic is worse than a year ago.

The poll found that for 62 percent of Santa Clara County residents it is more difficult to travel around the Bay Area than a year ago. Residents of the North Bay were No. 2 in perceiving traffic woes, with 55 percent saying it is more difficult to get around.

Residents in the highest-income brackets and people who drive alone were the most likely to say that traffic is getting worse in the Bay Area, the poll discovered.

About 60 percent of those who drive alone or never use mass transit said it is more difficult to get around the Bay Area. And 64 percent of people with household incomes of $125,000 or more said it is more difficult to get around.

More people are driving by themselves. An estimated 79 percent of respondents are driving in a car alone, up from 74 percent a year ago. As for mass transit, 17 percent are taking buses or light rail, up from 16 percent in 2015; and 15 percent use BART, up from 14 percent a year ago. The poll measured modes of transportation used at least two or three times a week for any purpose, so it’s possible for the combined results to exceed 100 percent.

In a reflection of the rise of the Uber and Lyft technologies, 6 percent are using those ride-booking apps, up from 3 percent a year ago.

The No. 2 most popular way to get around: walking, favored by 41 percent of the respondents.

“We’re running out of adjectives to describe how bad Bay Area traffic is and the misery it’s causing,” said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council. “We understand residents’ aggravation with traffic, but we’re not giving up on the problem.”

Contact George Avalos at 408-859-5167. Follow him at Twitter.com/georgeavalos.