Which city has the worst traffic in America? Survey says …

laLos Angeles. That’s according to a new survey by Inrix, which provides traffic and navigation services and produces a biannual traffic scorecard.

But there’s good news — or was good news — even for Angelinos who dread their morning commute. Gridlock reached its low point in the second quarter of 2009, thanks to the recession.

Unfortunately, it’s started to rebound again.

Here’s the Inrix list of most congested cities:

1. Los Angeles
2. New York
3. Chicago
4. Washington
5. Dallas
6. Houston
7. San Francisco
8. Boston
9. Seattle
10. Philadelphia

I’ve lived in almost all of these cities, and my first reaction to this list was, duh.

But digging into the data reveals some interesting trends.

Traffic congestion across the country is rising due to signs of economic recovery, initial rollouts of highway construction projects funded by federal stimulus packages, and lower fuel prices.

In fact, 64 of the top 100 most populated cities in the U.S. experienced increases in traffic congestion levels in early 2009.

An especially interesting nugget from the scorecard showed that Las Vegas experienced the biggest increase (2.4%) in travel times during peak commute periods year-over-year, most likely due to major construction along I-15 that began in the Summer of 2008. Other noteworthy increases include Baton Rouge (1.9%) – which was the only region that experienced travel time increases in 2008 – and Washington, DC (1.8%) – seemingly unaffected by the nation’s economic turmoil of the past year.

Cities with the largest decrease in travel times include Ogden, Utah (-5.6 percent), Bridgeport, Conn. (-4.5 percent), San Francisco (-2.8 percent), San Diego (-2.7 percent) and Chicago (-2.7 percent).

Why?

Reasons for the drops in each region vary, for example, the completion of a major road construction project in late 2008 and improved winter weather in 2009 contributed to Ogden’s decrease, and softer economic conditions hit Chicago, where unemployment surpassed 11% in June 2009.

It’s not all bad news, according to Bryan Mistele, Inrix’ president.

Traffic is a great indicator of the pulse of the economy and as the economy improves we expect gridlock to head towards 2007’s record levels as people return to work, freight transportation increases, and consumers switch back to vacations from staycations.

Bad traffic = good economy? I don’t know. I think some of us would prefer a bad economy and good traffic.

But I digress.

(Photo: PJM/Flickr Creative Commons)

  • Stephen – NYC

    As a native new yorker, I can say that our traffic (and not only cars, but buses and subways) stinks. I don’t have all the answers, but to paraphrase, I know traffic when I see it and I see plenty of it here in NYC, even with our economy being in the crapper.

  • larry bradley

    Since the title says America and not the United States , I vote for Lima, Peru.

  • Ginger

    For sheer volume I vote for anything within 40 miles of DC, weekends being as bad, if not worse, than the morning and evening commute. In No. VA along the 95 corridor it is horrible. Route 1 as an alternative south of DC can be even worse. There are numerous counties in No. VA with no dedicated turn lanes so you have to get through 3 cycles before it gets back to your lane. It is standard to wait over 15 light cycles to get through just one light and then on to the next set, the next set, and so forth. I don’t know why the people here haven’t lynched the local officials or VDOT. Can you just imagine the wasted production time, gas, etc. with all the waiting.

  • http://www.dclikealocal.com Tim Krepp

    Suburban DC is a nightmare, traffic wise. As Ginger notes above, there’s no relief on non-rush hours. If anything, the weekends are worse because rush hour is (largely) confined to main routes into DC and not the secondary roads.

    But what I find interesting that those of us who live in the city almost never talk about traffic. In so much it even appears on the radar, it’s about how to make the city more livable, with a focus on pedestrians, biking, and improving the metro system. While it’s a major issue in VA’s gubernatorial election, I don’t even remember a single candidate for DC mayor discussing it during the last election. When I do see traffic backed up in DC, a cursory look at license plates reveal that well over half (and often close to all) the plates are VA and MD. In short, I’d agree that traffic is a major problem in the DC area, it’s not a major problem for DC.

  • Bob

    LA’s traffic problems are the result of people on the Westside and those in the San Fernando valley who resisted subways and light rail for fear that “those people” would have easy access to their neighborhoods. Those of us from Hollywood to Downtown, to Long Beach to Pasadena enjoy clean, fast, and reliable subway and light rail service. As a senior citizen I can use the entire network for $14 a month; about what I’d pay to park for one day in downtown or Hollywood.

  • ryan

    Seattle traffic is pretty horrible. And the worst thing about it is we can’t even decide what to do with our aging bridges and overpasses. Chances are they’ll collapse during the next earthquake before we decide how to replace them.

  • pissedoffinthenw

    wow..im sure there is more packed cities but im tired of out of towners coming
    to seattle really its f*cken annoying. I dont give a damn what reason u have for comin out here its retarted i swear in 96 and earlier it was all cool people need to get the f*ck out of the NW for real why cant people just be happy with where they are at damn. and btw dont come through the CD or the southend because u will have trouble even cats in the northend not happy.