U.S. Grades for Gridlock

A recent CarConnection.com article (May 24, 2012) reports that Inrix, a provider of traffic data and information, identified Honolulu, Hawaii, as the U.S. city with the worst traffic.  The following list contains their rankings, along with the hours wasted by the average driver in that city because of traffic congestion:
     1)  Honolulu – 58 hours

     2)  Los Angeles – 56 hours

     3)  San Francisco – 48 hours

     4)  New York – 57 hours

     5)  Bridgeport, CT – 42 hours

     6)  Washington, D.C. – 45 hours

     7)  Seattle – 33 hours

     8)  Austin – 30 hours

     9)  Boston - 35 hours

     10) Chicago – 32.8 hours

L.A. drivers, however, have little to fear.  Checking out the INRIX scorecard for more recent data indicates that the City of Angels may be competing to reclaim its crown.

Many drivers from other traffic hampered cities, however, might not have much empathy for having to endure a few extra wasted hours behind the wheel on an island paradise or in sunny southern California.

The good news for all of us is that overall congestion was down 30 percent in 2011 from the previous year.

One last interesting (although not surprising) traffic tidbit is that nationally, the worst morning commute occurs on Tuesday, while the worst evening commute is on Friday.