New Orleans has one of the country's slowest drive times
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It takes about 18 minutes to drive 6 miles in New Orleans, making it one of the slowest drive times in the country, according to new data.
Why it matters: Drivers want to get where they're going — fast. But public transit and pedestrian advocates might point to these numbers as evidence that some cities are overwhelmed by cars and need to get serious about alternatives.
The big picture: New Orleans ranked No. 9 in the country in terms of average travel time per 6 miles, TomTom says in a report.
- The Crescent City was worse than other traffic-heavy cities like Atlanta, Houston and Los Angeles.
- New Orleanians lose 49 hours per year in rush hour traffic.
Zoom in: Wednesday through Saturday typically have the worst traffic, TomTom says, with rush hours peaking around 8am and 5pm.
- It takes about 26% more time to travel in the metro than when traffic is free-flowing.
- The average speed around 1pm Tuesday was 20.5 mph, which TomTom says was usual. See trends.
Between the lines: Lots of factors go into how quickly you can drive 6 miles in a given city, including traffic congestion, construction and weather.
How it works: TomTom's report is based on a representative sample of data collected by "over 600 million devices" and "over 61 billion anonymous GPS data points around the world," the company says.
- The numbers above are based on city centers — "the densest areas that capture 20% of all trips within the city-connected area," per TomTom.
Carlie's thought bubble: I can get to most destinations in town within 15 to 20 minutes outside of rush hour.
- But, if I hit school traffic uptown or there's a wreck on I-10, all bets are off.