The United States is home to some of the most congested cities in the world. Yet, some cities have not returned to their pre-COVID levels.
In contrast, others have more traffic congestion and delays than before the pandemic, according to the Global Traffic Scorecard report by INRIX, a transportation analytics company, released earlier this year.
“High levels of travel demands in these dense areas and limited supply in terms of road infrastructure is what causes traffic congestion,” Bob Pishue, a transportation analyst at INRIX, tells CNBC Make It.
According to the 2023 report, the typical driver in the country lost 51 hours in congestion in 2022, up 15 hours from 2021, costing the average driver $869 in lost time. Nationally, drivers spent 4.8 billion hours in congestion, which is still short of 2019’s 6 billion lost hours.
Of the cities ranked Chicago and Miami now have more traffic congestion and delays than they did pre-Covid, while Boston, New York, and Los Angeles have yet to catch up.
“These are all very dense areas and you have a lot of people concentrated in a relatively small amount of space and because of those high densities, there’s a lot of travel demand,” Pishue said.
When you’re in the moment congestion might seem bad, but Pishue says it’s a sign of a good economy.
“Congestion shows that the economy is moving. Traffic is a problem, but it’s reflective of people going to the office, running errands, shopping, visiting relatives, which are all good things.”
No. 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.
In Chicago, drivers lost 155 hours in 2022. According to the report, it now has more traffic congestion and delays than it did pre-Covid.
“We saw a lot of people get back into their cars. Based on Chicago travel patterns, it caused caught a bit of congestion last year,” Pishue said.
The city is home…
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