Features
18 mar 20

Congestion costs Americans 100 hours and $1,400 per year

Of the world’s 20 most congested cities, just six are in North America. But despite some progress, there is no room for complacency: congestion costs every American on average 100 hours and $1,400 (€1,275) per year.
 
According to the Global Traffic Scorecard, published annually by transport analysts INRIX, Bogotà is the world’s most congested city. Last year, drivers in the Colombian capital lost 191 hours due to congestion. The average last-mile speed of inner-city drives was 9 mph (14.5 km/h). 

Most other cities in the Top 20 are in Europe (7), and South America (5) also has its fair share. This partly reflects history: in these regions, urbanisation largely happened before the advent of the automobile, leading to relatively inaccessible inner cities. The story in North America is more or less reversed: first came the car, then the expansion of the cities – leading to more car-centric city grids. 

Continued innovation

According to INRIX’s most recent report, North America has some reason for cheer: yes, congestion costs Americans billions of dollars each year, and the average time lost by American drivers has increased by two hours from 2017 to 2019; but congestion delays have decreased in four of the five most congested cities in the US.

“Congestion appears to be stabilising in some of the country’s most congested metro areas,” says Trevor Reed, transportation analyst at INRIX. “The continued innovation and investment in smarter roadway management is showing early signs of progress.”

The report cites the banning of private vehicles from Market Street in San Francisco and the 14th Street Busway in New York City as prime examples in the US of a growing trend towards reprioritising street space from cars to other uses – a trend that could be complemented by progressive adoption of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) as alternatives to the increasingly obsolete ‘one person one car’ model.

Top 20

Here is the Top 20 of most congested cities in North America:

  City Global Ranking 2019 (2018) Hours lost to congestion Year-on-year change Last-mile speed (mph)
1 Mexico City 3 (5) 158 +2% 12
2 Boston 9 (6) 149 -5% 12
3 Chicago 10 (13) 145 +4% 11
4 Philadelphia 12 (8) 142 +4% 10
5 New York City 14 (16) 140 -4% 11
6 Toronto 19 (17) 135 -6% 11
7 Washington DC 21 (15) 124 -11% 10
8 Los Angeles 26 (27) 103 +4% 16
9 Montréal 28 (31) 117 +11% 10
10 San Francisco 30 (28) 97 -8% 10
11 Portland (OR) 43 (55) 89 +10% 14
12 Vancouver 45 (50) 87 +1% 11
13 Baltimore 46 (57) 84 +5% 10
14 Atlanta 47 (39) 82 +9% 12
15 Houston 49 (48) 81 -9% 15
16 Guadalajara (MX) 54 (42) 85 -10% 13
17 Miami 58 (61) 81 0% 15
18 New Orleans 59 (68) 79 +10%

12

19 Seattle 64 (73) 74 -1% 13
20 Stamford 68 (81) 74 +6% 13

As the figures show, Mexico City is the most congested place in North America, Boston in the United States and Toronto in Canada. 

Making progress

Congestion used to be a problem that got worse year on year, so it’s good to see eight of the 20 cities making progress, from mild (Seattle: -1%) to impressive (DC: -11%). But traffic did get worse in 11 other cities, especially in Atlanta (+9%), New Orleans and Portland, Oregon (+10%) and Montréal (+11%). 

Congestion is not just a persistent problem – it is also an expensive one. Clogged-up traffic in the worst-congested cities costs each driver $2,200 in Boston, $2,050 in Chicago, $2,000 in Philadelphia and New York, and $1,750 in DC. 

The graph shows that there’s a big differential in annual hours lost in congestion: just 74 hours in Stamford, Connecticut – less than half the amount lost in nearby Boston. So far down it’s not on the graph is 
Wichita, Kansas – North America’s least congested major city. Its drivers lost less than two hours a year… 

Pole position

That’s something drivers in North America’s most congested cities can only dream of. None of the metro areas listed above can boast inner-city traffic that is significantly faster than Bogotà’s. Fully 13 cities in the North American Top 20 have last-mile speeds of just 10-12 mph (16-20 km/h), while six have speeds of 13-15 mph (21-26 km/h). 

The fastest-moving city in the list is Los Angeles, at 16 mph. Anybody familiar with traffic in that city will be aware how relative LA’s pole position is.

And indeed, Los Angeles is home to three of the 10 worst-congested traffic corridors in the United States, including the top two: the I-5 (pictured, from the I-10 to the I-605) and US-101 (from CA-134 to CA-110). On those two stretches, drivers can expect daily delays between 19 and 20 minutes, adding up to between 76 and 80 hours a year. 

INRIX 2019 Global Traffic Scorecard

Authored by: Frank Jacobs