You're not crazy; traffic in Dallas-Fort Worth is worse
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If you shouted expletives on your morning drive, you're not alone. Dallas-Fort Worth traffic really has gotten worse since the pandemic.
Why it matters: Civic leaders love to cheer for the population boom in North Texas, but commuters are feeling the brunt of the growth while sitting behind the wheel.
- The average commuter lost $1,618 from wasted fuel and lost productivity in 2024, per the Texas A&M Transportation Institute's 2025 Urban Mobility Report.
State of play: The average driver in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area spent 69 hours sitting in traffic in 2024. That's four more hours than in 2019.
- Drivers in the region wasted more than 64.3 million gallons of gas last year sitting bumper-to-bumper. That's 21 gallons per D-FW driver.
Stunning stat: McKinney, which was once a small exurb of Dallas, now has major city traffic congestion. The report separates out part of northern Collin County and Denton County from the sprawling D-FW metro in the dataset.
- The average McKinney commuter wasted 57 hours in traffic last year, up from just 19 hours in 2019.
Zoom in: Denton saw a less drastic jump in traffic. The average Dentonite spent 37 hours in traffic last year, up from 32 in 2019.
- In D-FW, drivers can expect a trip that should take 20 minutes to take at least 26 minutes in traffic, the report says.
- Dallas-Fort Worth roads are congested nearly seven hours every day.
The big picture: North Texans aren't alone. The average U.S. commuter is spending a record 63 hours each year stuck in traffic.
- That's the most since the earliest measurement in 1982.
The intrigue: Though the traditional rush hour has returned, the midday has gotten more congested since 2019.
- And Thursdays now rival Fridays for having the worst after-work traffic.