Worst Traffic Congestion In The U.S.: Chicago Ranked Most Congested (PHOTOS)

Despite high fuel prices and a tough economy, traffic congestion is getting worse. Chicago drivers spent more time and money in 2009 traffic jams than most cities in the U.S., according to the 2010 Urban Mobility Report released Thursday.

Chicago and Northwest Indiana drivers wasted an additional 70 hours in traffic and an average of $1,738 in gas costs, according to the report published by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University.

Not that it's anything to brag about, but Chicago tied with the Washington, D.C. for the time drivers spent behind the wheel. Chicago's additional 70 hours of driving in 2009 was up from 64 hours in 2008.

"This year's report is a remarkable game changer," researcher David Schrank explained. "The new data address the biggest shortcoming of previous reports. The data show conditions for every day of the year and include the effect of weather problems, traffic crashes, special events, holidays, work zones and other factors directly impacting traffic flow."

A different report released by The Federal Highway Administration back in May 2010 determined the nation's top 100 most congested interchanges, and you guessed it, Chicago took the No. 1 and 2 spots.

The 2010 Urban Mobility Report looked at traffic congestion in the 439 U.S. urban areas. Overall, U.S. congestion costs reached $115 billion in 2009 and drivers wasted 3.9 billion gallons of fuel.

Check out the 10 most congested cities in America:

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# 1 - Chicago

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I'm done with traffic jams! Still love the city!

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Comments

[RobtBrock]

05:43 PM on 01/24/2011

LOL, Texas.

Bad news: Dangerously congested streets and highways (and strangling due to the air).

Good news: No new taxes!

[grod805]

01:45 AM on 01/24/2011

San Francisco should be on top of that list.

[UncleJimbo]

10:31 PM on 01/23/2011

DC/Baltimore is the worst I've encountered!.....Never have much trouble in NYC......Philly's worse!

[chitown555]

08:17 PM on 01/22/2011

Most who live in the city take public trans. the expressway jam is from commuters from Indiana and the burbs. The Eisenhower makes me weep. The Ryan just scares me silly. The absolute worst is 94/294 at the state line. Take the toll road whenever possible.

[Widespread Panic]

12:51 PM on 01/22/2011

I thought the ATL would be in the top for sure. Traffic is hell here...but definitely not as bad as DC or LA, traffic is a dream compared to those cities.

[jimme]

09:59 AM on 01/22/2011

Maybe it had to do with all of the road construction going on. But now that it's done, the roads are awesome.

[Sansculotte]

03:29 PM on 01/21/2011

Well - I travel for work and have driven in every city mentioned. San Francisco shouldn't be on the list. The south bay (San Jose) and east bay (Oakland/Berkeley) yes - but not SF. And they pictured traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge - which is rarely jammed. The Bay Bridge is ALWAYS jammed.
And in my book - Houston should be No. 1 with LA a close second.

[KevinDay9]

02:11 PM on 01/21/2011

I don't buy this at all. Is this just for the highways? Its easy to get around IN Chicago, if not into and out of on the highways. More importantly, you have the option of NOT having a car, which you can't say about nearly every other city in the U.S, especially on the West Coast and Southern states.

I have lived in Chicago for five years, and its very easy to live carless here. If anything, owning a car here is more of liability than an asset unless you have to leave frequently.

I ride a bike to my day job downtown but work for a moving company as a second job. We get 20'-24' trucks from anywhere to anywhere in the city limits in 30-60 minutes. You just need to know what you're doing. Sometimes it's smarter to just stick to surface streets.

[rich3324]

11:33 AM on 01/21/2011

I live near I95 and Route 1 in the DC area.On the weekends in the summer, you can not use those roads because there is so much traffic.

[Angelus2007]

01:10 PM on 01/21/2011

95 is like that even in the winter, I drove down to Woodbrige from Alexandria last Sunday and was stuck in traffic for 40 minutes. I-66 is awful at rush hour as well.

[GraphicMatt]

11:10 AM on 01/24/2011

I95 is pure hell down on my little stretch of it in S. Florida.

[Mickey Simple]

09:39 AM on 01/21/2011

The unused passenger sides of cars are killing us.

Since 90% of all car trips carry only the driver and 98% of all commutes have one or two drivers, we're carting around a bunch of empty seats on the right side of the driver for no reason at all.

In "Up in the Air" Geroge Clooney's character threw away the wide suitcase and replaced it with a narrow carry on. That's exactly what we should be doing with commuter cars with passenger sides.

The solution isn't building and manufacturing small cars. No disrespect to Smart Cars, but they don't help traffic flow. The solution is to manufacture and use ultra-narrow cars.

Fortunately, one of the best designs of ultra-narrow cars is patented by an American inventor who lives in Spokane. His name is Rick Woodbury. Check out his website: www.commutercars.com. The very safe, fast, and efficient Tango is ballasted by it's electric batteries. Solar panels on roofs can charge it for almost all commutes at no extra cost.

Regarding buses, the straddling buses that allow traffic to go through them and carry the passengers above traffic is quite promising: http://www.chinahush.com/2010/07/31/straddling-bus-a-cheaper-greener-and-faster-alternative-to-commute/

One more thing about George Clooney, he owns one of those ultra-narrow Tango cars.

Delete the unused passenger side seats. Duh.

[thrashertm]

07:00 AM on 01/21/2011

Chicago traffic FTW! Chicago's traffic would be better if we built more underground subway instead of paying off Daley's cronies.

[fayee21]

06:11 AM on 01/21/2011

I was wondering whether or not DC would start ranking in the top congested.....I live and commute in the DC area and the traffic is horrendous at all times of the day, in most directions. Even on weekends sometimes. I was surprised when I drove into NY that I preferred to drive in NY cause there was obviously less traffic than in DC. People are always surprised when I say this, but its the sad truth.
DC does have a metroi/bus system but its not the most extensive and during rush hour its even more impossible to traverse.
I went to the rally to restore sanity in September and we were planning on taking the metro, and we ended up driving cause the lines outside the metro were ridiculous....it took us less time to drive than our friends who took the metro. Really not a good state of affairs. DC really has to start doing something about this

[Angelus2007]

01:14 PM on 01/21/2011

The problem with the Metro is it doesn't go out far enough. With the new line going out to Dulles should help, but that is still a few years away. To be fair with the Restore Sanity rally, that is a weekend the the metro doesn't run as often, and everyone is going to the same place, while during rush hour, people are going to many different places. There are federal government offices in VA, DC and Maryland.

[littlebrowngirl]

05:02 AM on 01/21/2011

Chicago makes it easy for you not to drive. Trains in all direction, buses and taxis that run 24 hours, housing close to or even in downtown ( totally worth the money to live downtown) and the ability to walk almost anywhere. Also Chicago streets are connected on a simple grid to the surrounding areas, so instead of taking the highway you could take streets to get were you are going. I drove 35 miles from Chicago to Indiana for years and never used the highway. The trip took less than 45 minutes. The same trip would take me well over an hour on the highway.

In visiting recently, I noticed there was a ton of construction, but I know the short cuts and the best routes well so I had no problem at all.

In LA you have to take the highway because not all areas are connected by thru streets. New York and Philly have tons of one way streets that often cause gridlock, but both are manageable. DC is the worst ever. Terrible traffic and street planning. Narrow streets with no shoulders, tons of smaller streets that lead into very few larger streets, streets with no way out if you are stuck. DC can not compare at all to Chicago. DC is the worst hands down.

Here is another DC example, someone I know would drive to work at 4 am and sleep in his office until 8 am to avoid the traffic. No kidding.

[thrashertm]

06:57 AM on 01/21/2011

Trains do not go in all directions. The lines radiate out from the center of downtown like spokes on a wheel. It's necessary to take the bus to go across town usually.

[JScott]

11:39 PM on 01/21/2011

In LA you have to take the highway because not all areas are connected by thru streets.

I noticed that too and I live here. Ya notice if they don't have to cross over a mostly dry concrete channel they don't, or the street gets smaller and smaller until it ends in a residential cul de sac (the end of Whittier Blvd.)

[littlebrowngirl]

04:36 AM on 01/21/2011

I have lived in Chicago and Washington DC and DC is number one by far. No comparison at all. They should also judge the traffic by distance

In both Chicago and DC it may take me an hour to get home. However in Chicago I traveled 35 miles in one hour. In DC I traveled 12 miles in one hour. No comparison.

[KCFreedom]

12:47 AM on 01/21/2011

Get rid of those dang toll booths on the Kennedy near O'Hare, and perhaps one major bottleneck will be lessened.

I call that area the "Cumberland Constipator".