The New York City area officially has the worst traffic in the country, according to the latest survey for Texas A&M's Transportation Institute. The survey says a New York-Newark driver spent an average 56 hours stuck in traffic last year. Compare that to the 46 hours on average per driver for the year in Los Angeles.
1 U.S. city with the worst traffic: Chicago, IL. Chicago ranked as the U.S. city with the highest traffic delays in 2022. On a global scale, the Illinois city ranked No. 2, after London in the United Kingdom.
But hey, at least we climbed a spot from the cellar of 2022Clever's study of the best and worst U.S. cities for commuters in 2023 pegs Atlanta as a bottom-five finisher in terms of hellacious, expensive, time-consuming commutes—one spot worse than, gulp, Los Angeles.
As more people work from home, they are compensating by driving to other activities, he said. The design of Chicago's expressways are also partly to blame, as they funnel traffic into downtown. “The design of our expressway system has hurt traffic flow for generations,” Schwieterman said.
Driving conditions vary greatly from city to city, with some motorists faring better than others. Chicago has long been known for its traffic woes, but a study has now ranked it among one of the five worst U.S. cities for drivers in 2022.
And our roads are getting worse every year. According to Inrix, drivers spend more time stuck on gridlocked streets in London than in any other city on the planet. In 2022, our road hogs lost a whopping 156 hours each to congestion. (Up from 148 hours in 2021, and 5 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels.)