Worst Cities for Traffic

[question everything]

Worst Cities for Traffic
Forbes.com
By Robert Malone

NEW YORK - The worst traffic in the U.S. is getting even worse. It pollutes as the vehicles idle. It wastes the time of trucks and passenger cars. The annual delay per driver is in excess of 47 hours per year. It creates delayed shipments. It wastes more than 2.3 billion gallons of fuel each year.

The cost of U.S. traffic delays is, conservatively, $63.1 billion a year, based on 2003 figures, the Texas Transportation Institute says. And it's not getting any better.

"We would think that today the figure might be $2 billion to $3 billion more with the rise in fuel prices,” says David Schrank, author of the 2005 Urban Utility Report for the Texas Transportation Institute. He suggests further that despite this escalating problem, the commuting public has not changed its driving habits all that much. People have done some chaining of chores and shared driving to malls and offices. But the driving has continued, and the delays continue to get worse.

(snip)

By the Texas Transportation Institute's reckoning, the cities having the worst traffic problems are:

1. Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Ana, Calif.
2. San Francisco, Oakland, Calif.
3. Washington, D.C.
4. Atlanta
5. Houston
6. Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Tex.
7. Chicago.
8. Detroit
9. Riverside, San Bernardino, Calif.
9. Orlando, Fla.
11. San Jose, Calif.
12. San Diego

(snip)

http://biz.yahoo.com/weekend/traffic_1.html

[SmokingJacket]

1. Wow, Boston's not even in the top twelve!

I haven't driven in Boston in years, but when I did -- well, it was pretty hellish -- as bad or worse than Detroit. Has it improved, or have other places just gotten worse?

Interesting how New York's not even up there, though it's extremely dense -- thanks to good public transportation.

[Vexatious Ape]

7. but but but

All of Boston's traffic woes where solved with the Big Dig--right? Bechtel's boondoggle.

[Gormy Cuss]

8. Boston doesn't have bad traffic. It has crazy drivers on cowpaths.

In all seriousness, Boston traffic has improved thanks to the Williams tunnel and the changes related to the Big Dig. It's still somewhat crazy, but other cities have been getting worse and Boston and NY just don't seem so bad anymore in a relative sense.

[RagingInMiami]

12. I don't trust those rankings at all

There is no way that Miami is not in the top-twelve cities for worst traffic. No way in hell.

[skids]

21. I hate Boston driving.

Sooooo many one-way streets. But I have to say, D.C. is far worse and I can see why it made
the top of the list.

(BTW, Who else thinks they should make a Grand Theft Auto for Boston? One where the Big Dig gets built
during the course of the game.)

[f-bush]

2. Have you ever been in Seattle on...

a dark rainy Friday night after there has been an accident on I-5 it's holy hell!

[flamingyouth]

9. A couple of years ago Washington state stopped submitting data.

That's why we don't show up on this list anymore. Nice, eh? :eyes:

[freeplessinseattle]

14. interesting, I think we'd be near the top

I wonder why they stopeed submitting data? maybe a PR thing, want even more people to move here and be on the road!

[Evergreen Emerald]

35. near the top?

Traffic in and around Seattle is terrible. I used to commute from Federal Way to Seattle every morning and evening. It was a 2 hour drive that should have taken 20 minutes.

One afternoon before Thanksgiving I truly understood what total gridlock meant. Every available path was solid with traffic. I moved south after I graduated. The quality of life deteriorates when you have to sit in traffic for hours.

[f-bush]

47. Yeah Washington stopped submitting the data...

the year Seattle was rated as having the fourth worst traffic in the nation!

[CornField]

36. I was wondering why Seattle wasn't on that list

That city has the worst traffic I've ever had the misfortune of driving in.

[Jazzgirl]

38. Seattle is awful.

I live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth/Arlington gridlock and its awful too. As a matter of fact, just this week (after several sessions in ungodly traffic) I noticed I was getting way too stressed. What should've been a 20 minute drive took 1 1/2 hours. Really is a pisser. Seattle is just as bad if not worse. I always dread going from one bad situation to the worst. Amazingly, after I come back from a trip to LA I'm happy to deal with the DFW traffic.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

39. Hell, a sunny Tuesday morning will do the trick, too.

[depakid]

55. Nice public transportation in and around Seattle, too

Not.

I always wondered why an otherwise progressive area would be so backward ass about putting together a reasonable mass transit system. That's one department where you lose badly to Portland.

[DemoTex]

3. I have live in 4, 5, and 6, and traveled to the others extensively.

I agree that ATL and HOU are properly placed. But I do not think Dallas is #6. Maybe 7 or 8. Of course, I lived close-in and didn't have to deal with the LBJ (hi-way from hell!).

[yorkiemommie1]

4. no kidding!

... from Los Angeles - Long Beach here.

[TomInTib]

5. I have lived in five of these cities.

1, 2, 5, 6, 9. That's some traffic. And I have spent a lot of time in all of the rest of those cities.

Now I live directly across the Bay from San Francisco in a town with one traffic light.

[Poppyseedman]

6. 9. Orlando, Fla.??????

Who did this list........... Orlando? WTH?

Miami is at least 10 X worse on a good day.

[RagingInMiami]

13. Exactly

[DELUSIONAL]

16. Miami should be #1

[RebelOne]

24. I agree. I don't live there anymore, but when I did

back in 1989, traffic was hell even then.

[stoplightcat]

28. Orlando

You have to take into account population size, numbers of roads, etc. as weights in these surveys. I moved out of Orlando last year, and compared to Miami in size, Orlando has atrocious traffic. For a metro the size of Orlando, it's horrid. Of course, I'm in the ATL for the second time over, and this place is well known for our traffic hell. However, in Atlanta people seem to know how to move in traffic, whereas in Orlando, they just sit, many times for no reason. Family in NYC and Chicago think Orlando is horrible, too, based on its size. Miami's metro combined with Lauderdale have about four times Orlando's population.

[KitchenWitch]

34. Perhaps part of the problem in Orlando is due to tourism

And the fact that there seem to be a high percentage of drivers on the road that do not know their way around.

[Poppyseedman]

46. My only point was there is no way Orlando should rank higher

than Miami. Orlando is a zoo during tourist season, but Miami is hell everyday.

[TheGunslinger]

41. Surface streets there are red-light hell

[Lorien]

50. I'm in Orlando, and while the major roads are a mess, I agree that Miami

is more of a nightmare.

I'm self employed, so I only drive the major roads (I-4, 408, Colonial Drive, 17-92 etc.) around 10am or after business hours;it's amazing how quickly they empty after rush hour!

[deadparrot]

10. I-44 in Missouri is on the "Worst Highways" list.

I live less than 5 minutes from it--drive up and down it four days a week during the summer.

[Fountain79]

30. Or how about I-70 between KC ans St. Louis

I hate driving on that road.

[deadparrot]

56. I agree.

I have to drive that one between Columbia and St. Louis for college.

[saltpoint]

11. A lot of strong contenders on that list, to be sure, but I wouldn't

count out Cincinnati. The major highways 75 and 71 create a bottleneck from hell around 5:15 p.m. on a work day.

[TheGunslinger]

42. Cincinnati's roads are awful. Not enough artery roads

[DELUSIONAL]

15. Miami, Florida; Kansas City, Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri,

and yes I'd put Atlanta right near the top.

Miami is just as awful as Atlanta.

Miami has a whole lot of major road constructions going on making it really hard to get anywhere. See what happens when the Governor's brother is Prez of US.

[leftofthedial]

17. Dallas Ft Worth Arlington traffic is bad because

of all the Wastikas on rear windows causing sane drivers to swerve and say WTF?!?!

[Auntie Bush]

18. Holy Sh**! And I used to complain that the closest store was 4 miles

away and took 7 minutes to get there! Now I'll sing all the way and thank God I don't live in a big city.

[OnyxCollie]

19. Detroit sucks.

My girlfriend and I drove to Troy, Michigan recently. Due to shitty Mapquest directions, We got lost in downtown Detroit. We wasted a lot of time driving nowhere, and when we found a road that
could have let us out, it ended in a construction barricade. No "Road Closed. Use Detour." signs or alternative routes accessible. Just a dead end.

Detroit is a city planned by people who hate themselves almost as much as they hate everyone else. Highway on-ramp signs should say "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." It is a depressing, despondent, vile creature that wants to die, but only if it can watch you suffocate first. (And then, if that was kinda fun, maybe kill a few more and rethink the whole "wants to die" thing. For a while, anyway.)

We found out by accident that the way to reach 39 North is to go 39 South, which makes sense if you eat enough paint chips. To add to the fun, we jumped on a three mile connecting highway and got stuck in an enormous traffic jam. Three lanes of bumper to bumper traffic at a standstill as far as one could see.

[GRLMGC]

20. #1 sounds about right

If LA hadn't been number one, this list would have been suspect. I love my city but it has definitely got the traffic from hell

[DemInDistress]

22. where the hell is NYC,,,don't be fooled by this list

NYC is ranked right up there. I don't travel to many of these listed cities but from traveling around NYC I know this ranking must be skewered..

[0007]

29. I'd say NYC moves fairly well, providing a large truck isn't stuck

in traffic or loading or unloading and there are no double parkers, or some wise guy isn't stopped in the middle of the street yelling at a city bus, or some dignitary isn't going to a U.N. meeting, or Con Edison hasn't got streets blocked off doing underground electrical work, or some crazy man standing in the middle of the street telling everyone the worlds coming to an end.

You can tell when things are going smooth by the sound of the horns.

[ucmike]

45. that's a lot of providing for things not happening

when i was commuting in/out of the city by car i got worried when none of those things happened. it made me wonder what was about to happen.

i think that north/central new jersey should be on that list somewhere. i guess since we are lacking a centralized large city we don't count. maybe we belong on a regional list. i am constantly amazed that a traffic incident in the middle of the state can tie up every major roadway across 2-3 counties.

[DemInDistress]

59. not anymore,,horns used to be an indicator but now with those 350.00

dollar tickets for excessive horn blowing you cant judge traffic like that..still Manhattan trafffic is the pits. On a good day you could go across town in 45 minutes (lol) on a bad day try more than an hour and Manhattan is about 14 avenues wide..so smarty pants..

[auagroach]

23. Who decides U.S. tranport policy anyway?

You and me, otherwise know as "We, the people" or them, the oil industry, the automobile industry, the ______ fill-in-the-blank industry?

[question everything]

49. It started in California, where the oil and automobile industries

destroyed the excellent public transportation that LA Metro had. Since then all the sprawl and multi tasking people practically force people to use their cars to travel every where. A government agency can continue to pour more asphalt but, as a city planner once commented, within six months traffic is as bad as before.

And in many places people resist public transportation. Funny, "tax payers" do not complain when tax money goes to build more roads or even more airports, but they oppose to using tax money to support public transportation including Amtrak.

A Light Rail was opened in Minneapolis in 2004 and its ridership exceeded all expectations. One good thing, it includes a stop at the airport. Something that NYC and LA sorely lack.

And then there is a vicious cycle. Many workers who can commute to their work really love this, once they discover it. But when they don't know any better they continuously object to a light rail in their midst.

[RebelOne]

25. I didn't even have to look at the list to know

that Atlanta would be one of the worst. People here all drive like they are on the Indianapolis Speedway. Even if you are traveling 80 on I-75, you are being tailgated.

[martymar64]

26. L.A. is the worst . . .no shit

I used to commute from North Hills to El Segundo everyday. The 405 is hellish at best. Not even Sepulveda is a good option anymore. Now I deal with I-35 from Austin to San Antonio, the "Corridor of Death", more fatalities than any other stretch in America. Thanks NAFTA!

[OnyxCollie]

52. I-35 worse than Route 666? (Now known as Route 491)

I heard it was because of all the drunk Native Americans that would travel off the reservation for alcohol. I drove on it maybe five, six years ago when it was still 666. Got a picture of one of the highway signs. There were no signs along the highway, just in the small town where it started. People kept stealing the signs. (The Native Americans were allowed to name the highway because it went through their reservation. 666 meant nothing to them, but they knew it would piss off Whitey. It even went against the way highways are numbered. Even numbered highways run east to west, but 666 ran north to south.) Anyway, right before I entered the reservation, the sides of the road were completely covered in broken glass from beer bottles. Everywhere I looked, the ground sparkled. The glass went right up to the reservation line, then stopped entirely.

Edit:Typo

[Daphne08]

27. Los Angeles and Long Beach. Yes, especially LA. n/t

[Starbucks Anarchist]

31. I love in Los Angeles -- no surprise that it's number one.

Fortunately, my commute to work is only 3-4 miles and I don't really drive otherwise.

[mainer]

No Honolulu?

C'mon.

[mainer]

32. No Honolulu?

C'mon.

[TankLV]

40. Agreed. That parking lot - the H-1 is a real gem to get the few miles

Pearl City to Honolulu in - what - an hour or something?

[SKKY]

33. How Seattle isn't on that list is beyond me...

...I've driven in 4 of the cities in the top 12 at rush hour, and Seattle is worse by orders of magnitude.

[Nay]

37. DC and Atlanta do truly suck, but where is Miami in this list? It was

horrible 20 years ago -- I can't imagine what it's like now.

[RebelOne]

58. I left Miami in 1989 and the traffic was absolutely miserable.

But after moving to the Atlanta area, I realized that Miami wasn't so bad after all.

[4dsc]

43. What no Phoenix???

As I truck driver, I've been to alot of these places and I can say without a doubt that Phoenix belongs in the top 10.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

44. Dallas has the worst on/off ramp designs I've ever seen

Three and four lane highways become parking lots each morning and afternoon because of it. And I'm starting to believe the High Five cloverleaf has become obsolete before it's even finished.

[wordpix2]

48. so why does * want to kill Amtrak? A: Because he's a moron

[Lorien]

51. So it's costing us more than $63 billion. How about a Mag-lev train

(monorail) system, with light rail connectors? There's no way such a system would cost America half that much yearly.

Oh, yeah-such a system wouldn't enrich the fossil fuel industry. My bad. :eyes:

[sweetheart]

53. traffic'ed indeed underfoot

Traffic'ed indeed tramped at speed underfoot
Toxic oiled ground where you've passed your mobile plastic abode,
become toxic byways no good use can be put,
That our mindspace, spread out the long length of a road,
Cluttered with diseased radio CD's and jackalope foot,
subwoofer, ipod, map doodad with a super ultra enlightened speed camera detector,
Mental murk, tired mind's coffee perk, gag on the stench of brake soot,
Sniffing the air, smells like tires unleaded care, of an untouched natural detractor.

Driving in so many farts,
the destination must be worth the smell,
As those without need might find the speed,
to ditch the cars and dwell without the hell,
a means of thought where does not life center round
crossing daily masses of toxic mediocre paved ground.

[freefall]

54. Not to worry. $4 a gallon gasoline is on the horizon and that will

probably change a lot of driving habits. Of course, it is going to cause a lot of misery for those who can least afford it but that seems to be the American way.

$4 a gallon
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8804.htm

Warning: the above link is to a depressing/frightening article which lays out a scenario for the future of this country when gas hits $4 and up. It is up to you to decide if you think it is a reasonable scenario and to take steps to ready you and yours for the future if you do. (The article first appeared in the Austin Chronicle in spring of '05 but I can no longer connect to the original article.)

[pitohui]

62. no it won't because the demand is inelastic

even if gas is $40 a gallon, since we live in a capitalist society, people still have to go to work or else starve to death or die for lack of medicine so this is why traffic never gets any better no matter how expensive gas gets

there is a difference between elastic and inelastic demand, the people who call for higher gas prices never "get" it though, they are still in the 1700s as far as their study of economics goes

all the sunday drivers and optional drivers quit optional driving in the 1970s

[Lori Price CLG]

57. OMFG, where is *Boston?* n/t

[sakabatou]

60. CA - 5 places baby! WOOHOO!

[pitohui]

61. well i know that list cannot be correct

the worst city for traffic is covington, louisiana, can i get a witness?

the population tripled in a day