Visit the Cities With The Worst Traffic In The United States

Could you do it with an extra $2,618? That is how much money Chicago commuters lost as a result of traffic costs.

According to the most recent traffic study from Inrix about cities with the worst traffic, a U.S. business that analyzes transportation data, delays on the busiest U.S. corridors grew in 2022, as did metro-wide congestion.

Five of the top ten worldwide cities with the worst traffic in 2022 were in the United States, with Chicago ranked second only to London in the report’s international rankings. Following Chicago, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Miami filled out the top five cities with the worst traffic in the U.S. Washington, D.C., the sole newcomer to the top ten U.S. cities with the worst traffic, jumped from 13th to 8th place.

In Chicago, the average driver wasted 155 hours, or over six and a half days, due to traffic in 2022, costing an estimated $2,618 in lost time. The research calculates wasted time using a 2016 analysis by the US Federal Highway Administration, which estimates that an average hour stuck in traffic in the United States is worth almost $17 when adjusted for inflation.

INRIX compared commute times to and from key employment centers during peak and off-peak hours in over 1,000 cities across 50 nations to determine per capita time spent in traffic congestion among drivers. According to INRIX, drivers in large cities with the worst traffic in the United States lost an average of 51 hours in traffic in 2022, amounting to $869 in lost time.

According to INRIX, 4.8 billion hours of traffic congestion would cost drivers a total of $81 billion in 2022. The money lost does not include additional fuel costs, which are expected to rise in 2022 as gas prices rise. According to INRIX, the average vehicle commuter spent over $1,300 on fuel in 2022, up from around $1,000 the previous year.

While traffic congestion increased across the country in 2022, it was still not as bad as it had been in 2019, prior to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 60% of the 295 US urban locations studied in 2022 are still below their 2019 levels, including 38 of the 50 cities with the worst traffic. Only Chicago, Miami, and San Francisco have hit or exceeded their 2019 traffic levels, with the others remaining below.

Planning to have a road trip in the United States? Make sure to get aware of the cities with the worst traffic in the state.

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