The 10 worst US cities for traffic
The grass, it seems, is always greener on the other side of the highway median. , and you鈥檒l likely get a lengthy tirade about the abysmal traffic conditions on his daily drive.
聽Whether you live in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Spokane, New York or even Orlando, chances are that you dread the daily commute and believe that traffic is better anywhere else in the United States than in your city.
聽Thanks to the most recent from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), we now know who鈥檚 got bragging rights for the latest year studied, 2011.
聽According to the TTI, traffic in Washington D.C. is the worst, with each commuter losing an average of 67 hours per year in traffic. Los Angeles and San Francisco are tied for second place, with each municipality taking 61 hours annually from its commuters.
聽In fourth place is Newark, New Jersey, lumped into one miserable bundle with New York, New York. Drivers here can expect to waste 59 hours sucking down exhaust fumes each year, which is quite a bit worse than fifth-place Boston (with a mere 53 hours annually).
聽To the surprise of no one living in Houston, the Texas city is next on the list, with 52 hours of wasted time yearly (which is also the national average for very large cities). Atlanta and Chicago tie for seventh place (with 51 hours each), while Philadelphia and Seattle split the final spot, taking only 48 hours from commuters annually.
聽To put the in perspective, the average American commuter wastes 38 hours per year in traffic, and needs to allow a full hour for a trip that, under ideal circumstances, would take just 20 minutes. Is it any wonder the vast majority of us are sleep-deprived and stressed to the breaking point, or that ?
聽If there鈥檚 good news to be found in the latest survey, it鈥檚 this: traffic in 2012 still wasn鈥檛 as bad as traffic in the pre-recession days of 2007, but we suppose that鈥檚 because many Americans are still out of work. The relief on the roads is expected to be short-lived, however, as the TTI expects congestion to grow significantly in the coming years. 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽聽
