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Oct 1, 2017

The U.S. cities with the worst traffic jams for their size

Alayna Treene

INRIX Roadway Analytics, a cloud-based traffic analysis tool, identified and ranked 108,000 traffic hotspots in the 25 most congested cities in the U.S.

Data: INRIX; Note: Impact measured by number of jams, average duration in min, and average length in miles; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios
Data: INRIX; Note: Impact measured by number of jams, average duration in min, and average length in miles; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios

More from the study:

  • New York had more traffic hotspots (an area which has the most traffic jams) than any other city, costing drivers an estimated $64 billion by 2026 due to wasted time, fuel and emissions.
  • Los Angeles, which tops the overall INRIX ranking, has 10 of the 25 worst traffic hotspots in America, costing L.A. drivers an estimated $91 billion over the next 10 years.
  • I-95 in Washington, D.C., was the worst overall traffic hotspot, which caused 1,384 traffic jams over the research period, stretching 6.47 miles and lasting 33 minutes on average.

Methodology: To understand the impact of traffic congestion at the street level instead of the household level, INRIX Research used the "bottleneck tool," which identified and evaluated every traffic jam within a customizable study area and time period. Additionally, as traffic jams frequently form at the same location, the bottleneck tool aggregated and summarized these locations.

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