Ten US cities have been named among the top 25 worst congested cities in the world.
Transportation data and analytics organisation Inrix has released data that identifies and ranks congestion and commuting trends in nearly 1,000 cities, across 37 countries.
Istanbul’s 105 hours lost to congestion topped the worldwide rankings, followed closely by New York City and Chicago – both 102 hours.
“Every year since 2020, we’ve seen traffic gradually rise towards what it was pre-pandemic,” said Bob Pishue, transportation analyst at Inrix and author of the 2024 Global Traffic Scorecard.
“While the US is still behind pre-2020 levels of traffic, a pullback of remote and hybrid work models, specifically in tech-heavy areas like San Jose, San Francisco, and Seattle, brought a large jump in downtown trips, which is a good sign for metropolitan economies. The data also shows more economic activity Saturday and Sunday evenings as the downtown core returns to life.”
The remaining eight most congested cities in the US are: Los Angeles (88) Boston (79), Philadelphia (77), Miami (74), Houston (66), Atlanta (65), Washington (62), Seattle (63).
Overall, congestion resulted in drivers losing an average of 43 hours to traffic jams in 2024, equal to about one work week, costing $771 in lost time and productivity. Nationwide, this sums to more than four billion hours lost, costing $74 billion in lost time.