I can't figure out how Pittsburgh ranked only #40 with an average annual loss of hours totaling 12.4 hours. It seems I waste close to an hour in front of the Squirrel Hill Tunnel every time I go there and I'm not a daily commuter, maybe about one round trip per MONTH.
Most congested Bridge.....?? But only for 5 days!!
Like global warming?
There’s a pattern here, but I just can’t put my finger on it....
“I can’t figure out how Pittsburgh ranked only #40 ...”
I’m baffled myself. I’ve been in Austin a few times and the traffic there reminded me of Pittsburgh’s choke points :-) .
Having driven in both L.A. and S. F., I’d say S. F. with it’s hills, narrow, crooked streets and a cable car coming at you from every direction, is much worse than L.A.
BA
Good grief. Nashville is 28th. Figures. They say we waste 15.8 hours/year in traffic. Bull. It’s way more than that. I spend over 8 hours a week just getting to and from work (5days/week). Grrrrr.
Pittsburgh does have a couple of bad areas for traffic. But they only persist for a few hours a day.
Take the worst Pittsburgh traffic. Then apply that to every mile of highway and every major non-highway road within city limits. Then triple the time that it persists. Then multiply it by ten to account for city size...voila - Chicago.
Having lived on the SF peninsula, I can agree with the SF/SJ listing. Commuting home on the 101 from Palo Alto to San Mateo when there was a game going at Candlestick was an hour drive (14 miles). Throw in a 7.1 earthquake, and it’s gridlock everywhere (10/17/89).
D.C. below Austin? Right.
Los Angeles?
The city is actually small, are the talking about the Los Angeles area or basin?
I wish people would figure out that southern California is not LA.
Seattle has 2 “mega projects” underway at a total cost exceeding $6 Billion. Seattle’s version of the Big Dig is currently stalled because of an old well pipe casing and is expected to chew up $100 million contingency faster than it’s been chewing through the dirt and the 520 floating bridge project just issued another $170 million change order on top of the $200 million change order because of poor design of the pontoons.
Neither of these two projects are designed to alleviate any congestion.
Personally, I’d rank Honolulu worse than LA. At least in LA, there are options to exit and take surface streets. In Honolulu during rush hour, you really can’t escape it.
Wow, I’ve just happened to have lived (live) in 3 of the top 10 worst! In my experience, LA is far worse than San Francisco, Boston and Chicago. It’s a tight race though..
Not even sure why I’m commenting on this! So not important in the scheme of things currently :)
The press release from the originating organization.
I was looking for a list of the 50 cities. I don’t want to give Weather.com 50 page clicks.
http://www.inrix.com/pressrelease.asp?ID=156
By analyzing traffic in the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas in 2011, the Top 10 Worst U.S. Traffic Cities1 are:
1. Honolulu: Drivers waste 58 hours in traffic2; Worst Hour = Tuesday from 5:15 – 5:30pm
2. Los Angeles: Drivers waste 56 hours in traffic2; Worst Hour = Thursday from 5:45 – 6:00pm
3. San Francisco: Drivers waste 48 hours in traffic2; Worst Hour = Thursday from 5:45 – 6:00pm
4. New York: Drivers waste 57 hours in traffic2; Worst Hour = Friday from 5:30 – 5:45pm
5. Bridgeport, CT: Drivers waste 42 hours in traffic2; Worst Hour = Friday from 5:30 – 5:45pm
6. Washington, D.C.: Drivers waste 45 hours in traffic2; Worst Hour = Thursday from 5:45 – 6:00pm
7. Seattle: Drivers waste 33 hours in traffic2; Worst Hour = Thursday from 5:30 – 5:45pm
8. Austin: Drivers waste 30 hours in traffic2; Worst Hour = Thursday from 5:30 – 5:45pm
9. Boston: Drivers waste 35 hours in traffic2; Worst Hour = Thursday from 5:30 – 5:45pm
10. Chicago: Drivers waste 36 hours in traffic2; Worst Hour = Thursday from 5:30 – 5:45pm
Austin traffic is fine as long as you avoid rush hour, major concerts and Longhorn games. Houston seemed worse to me.
Phoenix traffic is a breeze unless there is an accident. I can drive Hiways 10 to 143 to 202 to 51 to 101 from Tempe to Cave Creek in 40 minutes (35 miles) at 6:00PM. I do it twice a week. However having migrated from the bay area some years ago ... ANY traffic would be better than San Jose to Livermore (or back) over Sunol grade during traffic hours