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.
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CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey showed us how in some cases, it's worse and how remote work schedules are playing a big role. Because of remote or hybrid schedules, drivers are hitting the road at all times of the day, making the congestion more unpredictable than it was before COVID-19 came to Chicago.
Surprisingly or not, Chicago, IL was found to have the second worst traffic in the world, right behind London, UK (No. 1); and the absolute worst in all of North America, surpassing infamously congested cities like New York City, NY (No. 4) and Los Angeles, CA (No. 9).
They aren't. A whopping 60% more tourists — nearly 48.9 million domestic and international visitors — came to Chicago in 2022 compared to the year before, according to the tourism group Choose Chicago.
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.
Thanks to public transit, walkable sidewalks, bike lanes and easy access to car sharing, you can get around Chicago pretty well without actually owning a car. However, you may need to use one for a longer trip outside of the city.