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9 cities with the worst traffic jams

June 7, 2007

Here’s an honor no American city wants: the place with the worst traffic congestion. Is there such an award? Well, not quite, but close. The U.S. Department of Transportation today announced nine semi-finalists for a federal program that will pour a total of $1.1 billion into a traffic jam-fighting program.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters told a press conference this morning that something “different, innovative and daring” is needed to fight traffic. (Hmmm, how about putting the money into mass transit, Mary?)

Here are the cities that made the cut:

» Atlanta

» Dallas

» Denver

» Minneapolis-St. Paul

» Miami

» New York City

» San Diego

» San Francisco

» Seattle

My bet’s on New York, with Miami as a dark horse. The loser — er, I mean, winner — will be announced in August.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

28 comments

  • Jonathan

    How can Los Angeles not be on this list…nor be the clear leader?!?! All I have to say is that a few years back, I was taking a flight from JFK through LAX to SNA. On the connection from LAX to SNA (a 55 mile flight or so), I was talking to the person seated next to me…who commuted this way. When flying is a viable option for a 55 mile journey, that tells you everything you need to know about the traffic.

  • BriCo

    Somehow Phoenix, AZ got left out. I travel there frequently, year round, and being from Los Angeles I can say without hesitation Phoenix traffic is generally worse, at least during their rush hour. Freeways, side streets, city streets – the whole enchilada.

  • Alan Schlesinger

    Hi. Interesting column. I am amazed that Los Angeles didn’t make the cut! Granted, New York and San Francisco are traffic jam capitals, but LA traffic is legendary and increasing daily. In addition to the rush hour traffic, one can encounter heavy traffic in the LA area anywhere at any time! I’d hate to see what traffic is like in these other cities if they can truly knock LA out of the race.

  • Dan

    Who ever made up this list has probably never been on the Santa Monica to San Diego or Santa Monica to Harbor freeways in L.A. during rush hour(s)! Nothing like it anywhere!

  • Gary

    Los Angeles is probably not on the list because they are not battling for federal funding. They already have several federally funded freeway projects underway and are not up for anymore at the moment.

  • bob

    where is chicago? I-90 is a horror show and good luck getting to o’hare… this is unreal… and i lived in NYC for 50 yrs

  • Vicky

    Can you add Honolulu
    hawaii there…

  • Robert Fitzgerald

    I live in San Diego and even though our communtes are dreadful, the freeways of Los Angeles are far more congested than any other freeway system in California. At times Orange county has the worst commutes, but the O.C. does have wide freeways and H.O.V lanes, mainly the 5, so it does keep the traffic levels lower than L.A. Parts of the Inland Empire are horribly congested and the construction on the roadways to accomadate the growing population makes it more dangerous and confusing.

  • Howard Williams

    I have lived in both New York and Los Angeles, and one relevant factor is how much traffic jams affect the average person. The average resident of NYC is hardly affected by the problem because over half the residents use mass transit daily. In LA, mass transit is not a viable option for most people, so the experience of getting around causes far more overall misery. (I’ll take New York any day.) Is this factored into the study?

  • Karl

    DOT is full of BS. Washington DC and Los Angeles have terrible traffic. How can Minneapolis be a finalist?

    The DOT must have also considered the likelihood that the finalists could actually improve the traffic situation. I would believe that. Throwing money at DC city government is like throwing money down the drain.

  • Lisa

    For those who think Minneapolis doesn’t belong on the list – you might be surprised. Example: I live 14.1 miles from my office. That’s garage to parking garage. Every morning, I leave my house to hit the interstate a mere 2 miles from my house. That portion of my journey normally takes me 10 – 15 minutes – just for the 2 miles. The other 12.1 miles takes me an additional 30 minutes. Every. Single. Day. That’s 45 minutes to go 14.1 miles. Want to guess what the commute time is at the end of the day? At least 45 minutes, but routinely 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. It takes me a minimum of 90 minutes per day to drive 28.2 miles.

    And this is separate and apart from the bridge tragedy… which is what I believe the 133MM is targeted for in the first place – which won’t do anything to help me or anyone within 10 miles of me.

    I love Minneapolis, but we do not have good public transportation here and even if we did, I’m not sure that people would use it. Too many people are in love with their gas-guzzling SUVs… which is pretty weird for a state that was recycling a good 10 years before many parts of the country.

  • Francis

    Minneapolis has light traffic, then. To go 14.1 miles in 45 minutes in Los Angeles is a pretty nice commute. Take a guess at what 100,000 people face in their 14.1 mile commute from Tarzana to Westwood at rush hour? A 2 – 2.5 hour drive. That’s if there’s no accident in the pass. Heaven help you if there is.

  • Rachel

    weird. LA should be there. I don’t believe this list.

  • Cecil

    This article is B.S. Chicago’s traffic is hiddeous—I work 21.4 miles from home and must alot 90 minutes (many times clocking in right on the button for my start time). On a good day, the most direct route takes 75 minutes. In the morning, if I leave home after 5:30 a.m., forget about it, you’re done. Trying to go .25 miles, making a left turn at a light, it has taken me up to 45 minutes after 5:30 a.m. (I have to be at work by 7 a.m.) Trying an alternate route, I can take a road less traveled to make my left, but then it takes 40 minutes to go 6 miles (whoo, hoo, I save a whole 5 minutes).

    The expressways are a joke. . . 38 miles to the city limits, one must allow 105 minutes to reach the Northside of Chicago. In Chicago, we have two seasons, winter, and construction. Our government is so corrupt, construction is a way of life—Chicago doesn’t do construction in order to fix spurs and poor infrastructure due to poor urban planning, it does construction to keep cronies in business and patronage alive (Walsh Construction Co., anyone????) It’s truly pitiful; that’s why our previous governor is headed to the bighouse (literally—he is due to report to prison, soon, for all the stealing that he did from the coffers of the taxpayers), and our current governor probably isn’t far behind. . . .federal indictments, come out, come out, wherever you are. . . .

    I’m ashamed when I have to empathize with visitors who have no idea what they are in for, land in town, and it takes them 3 hours to make it 20 miles from the airport. G-d forbid you come through Indiana and have to pass through the Southside of Chicago and have to go 40-50 miles to a Northwest suburb; that can take you upwards of 6 hours. G-d forbid.

    I can’t imagine if Chicago was to get the Olympics. . . the commuters would have to helicopter to work and rapel down to the roof of their buildings. . . there is no other way—as it is, our heavy rush hour(s) last from 5:00 a.m., to 10:00 a.m., and then again from 1:00 p.m., to 10:00 p.m. I think it might be heavy for longer at night due to all the universities in the Chicago proper letting out the night classes, and people working late to pay for their sprawling, empty suburban homes on their .25 acre lots. . . all lot, no yard, can’t afford furniture. These are the people to blame for urban sprawl, but ultimately I blame the local goverments for allowing so many “cookie cutter” subdivisions to pop up, which places the burden on the roads.

    . . . And, don’t get me started on the people commuting to downtown Chicago from the great (blechhh) state of Wisconsin. These are the folks that clog the roads at 3:30 a.m., YES, 3:30 a.m., bumper to bumper, yet, weirdly, moving at 75 miles per hour. I started going to work at 3:30 a.m. in order to avoid traffic going to work and returning home, however, I feared for my life due to the maniacal cheeseheads plugging our roads so early, driving like some wild da*n maniacs in their Ford F-150′s. Hee, haw, yall.

  • Greg

    There is no doubt LA and the Bay area are terrible. I live in Chicago but spent 5 years in LA and SF. I hate Chicago traffic, but I admit that the left coast is worse. I can’t imagine why Minneapolis is on this list. I spent nearly 3 years working there and without the bridge collapse issue, it can’t compare to the top ten. It isn’t hard to figure out that anywhere you have millions of people in one area, you have heavy traffic.

    I travel heavily and if you ask anyone who lives in just about any city, such as Indianapolis, they think they have it bad. Any city where you can drive through it in rush hour and can get over 55 mph through downtown, forget it, you have it easy.
    The cities that need discussion are the ones where you can’t get the needle much over the zero on the gauge without slamming on the brakes.

  • Chris

    I grew up in LA and moved to Long Island in my early thirties. In general the traffic in new york is worst. It rush hour lasts much longer, drivers are way more aggressive, the amount of time you can be in complete grid lock is much worst and the fact that people have no courtesy or regard for other drivers. The LA area freeways are wider with more lanes however new york has more highways than LA. Also the mass transit in LA is nothing compared to new york’s. Most people who commute to Manhattan use mass transit. In fact almost everyone who work in my office uses mass transit to get to work. The reason is because they would have to leave at 4:30 to get in for 9 am. Almost no one who works in manhattan drives Thats a fact that cannot be argued ask any New yorker and they will tell you nobody drive to work. Its impossible. Most people in LA drive. Millions of people use mass transit in New York. Imagine if all those people drove. If LA built a subway system then the traffic would be much better. If you hypothetically to the people using mass transit and made them drive like in La where most people drive it would be a huge problem. Millions of extra cars would be added to the traffic. This is the real comparison LA might think its bad but if New york didn’t have such a good mass transit system it would be in big trouble

  • Darrel

    Chicago is terrible. There is no such thing as a reverse commute against traffic. I’m in outside sales and continually sit in traffic worrying about being late to appointments. There was no vision here in terms of planning for the future. There is very little room for lane expansion as frontage roads and homes are extremely close to the freeway/tollways since real estate is so precious. It is not uncommon to find MAJOR interstate arteries in Chicago that only have 3 lanes in each direction. There are plenty of Chicago highway projects that were killed by opposition in the highway building boom years of the 60’s and 70’s. We need to propose these projects again as some of the opposition probably isn’t around anymore (sorry to say). Resurrecting these projects and finding a way to engineer lane expansion to current highways is a must. As much as I want the Olympics here…..we don’t have the infrastructure to accommodate it.

  • http://msn richard

    Haven’t been to New York or LA, but having lived in Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas, Atlanta traffic is the worst by far. Commuting into Hotlanta from either the south or the north, you’re stuck in traffic at 6:00 am. The connector, 85, should be named the congestor as everyone and their grandparents sit in traffic almost all day. Once I timed driving from downtown Atlanta to Norcross, about 17 miles away. It took 1hr and 15 min during rush our traffic… Thank God I live in Denver now!

  • Jermey

    I have beem to ATL NYC AND CHICAGO AND LA I DONT BEIEVE LA IS NOT ON THE LIST BY FAR LA HAS THE WORST TRAFFIC I MEAN IF U LIVE IN LA THE WORST FREEWAY OR HIGH WAY IS THE 405 AND 101 LOOK IT UP IN GOOGLE NUMBER 1 WORST FREE WAY AND LA OR GREATER LA BEAT NYC IN HIGHWAYS BECAUSE LA HAS THE BIGGEST FREEWAY OR HIGHWAY SYSTEM IN AMERICA.

  • CaliRiut

    I Go with jermey Because i have lived in every city like jermey La is and SF ARE THE WORST I MEAN I LIV IN CALI AND THE 405 AND 101 KILLS NYC TRAFFIC BY FAR.I MEAN THE 405 AND 101 HAVE TRAFFIC FROM SUNUP AND SUNDOWN BECAUSE I WORK I WORK LATE AND IM ALWAYS STUCK. AND THE HARBOR FREEWAYS DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THOSES FREEWAYS. AND LONG BEACH IS JUST HORRIBLE BECAUSE OF THE 710 WITH SO MANY TRUCKS GOING TO THE PORTS. PLUS THE BAY AREA MAN I BELIEVE THE BAY AREA IS WORSER THAN NYC I MEAN ITS MORE DENSLY POPULATED THAN NYC LOOK IT UP ON GOOGLOE MORE THE BAY AREA IS MORE POPULATED THAN NYC. AND LAST SAN DIEGO ITS MORNING AND NGHT COMMUTES ARE BAD BUT NOT AS BAD AS BAY AREA AND LA. AND GARY UR LYING

  • Dani

    LA and other such congested cities may have been left off the list simply because they didn’t apply. There is not enough information on the US DOT press release to determine how they chose the semi-finalists so its hard to know if LA was rejected or they didn’t submit an app. Some states lose out on millions of dollars of funding simply because the right person or agency didn’t bother to submit an application.

    What I think is funny is that every one of the semifinalists recommend tolls as a way to reduce traffic. And they will “beef up” transit options, but as Chris pointed out elsewhere the award amount is the equivalent of what it takes to put up a monument in downtown NYC.

  • Swimerjb

    Denver suprisingly has a congested rush hour, commuters commute from a 100 miles radius. AND LODO [lower downtown] is pretty congested at all times any day any where

  • tony

    I’ve been to every major city in America so I can tell you what cities have the worse traffic. By the way, I should know because I am a truck driver from Macon, Ga. The 3 Cities that I try to avoid the most are Atlanta, Chicago and L.A. Avoid them as much as you can if you know what’s good for you. Here’s my top 10:

    1) L.A
    2) Atlanta
    3) Chicago
    4) Washington
    5) San Fransisco
    6) Dallas
    7) Houston
    8) Miami
    9) N.Y City
    10) Baltimore( converge with Washington traffic)

  • Raz Cody

    I know how bad the traffic is in LA but who the hell really wants a subway in LA of all places? A monorail, yes. But this list should definitely include the city of Houston as the worst traffic.

  • joe w.

    Chicago is the worst. After visitng LA for a few months, I can say that LA freeway traffic is worse, but the surface roads are unbelievably wide and fairly empty, even at rush hour. In Chicago, the freeways are bad, but the surface streets are no better. All the surface roads are super narrow and congested and traffic lights are not synchronized or computer controlled except in the loop itself. And the surface roads are 30mph limit and you’ll be lucky to reach that. And the SNOW omg. Chicago is overall quite a bit worse then LA, sorry LA.

  • Russel

    I lived in Atlanta and have visited LA, SanFran, Dallas, NYC, DC/Baltimore and Chicago. Could be bias, but Atlanta was worse than the others (except possibly getting from Baltimore airport to DC), probably because I had to drive in it EVERY DAY. Just sitting in dead still traffic for hours… I’m sure if I lived in these other places, I would think the same having experienced it daily. The roads and interchanges in Atlanta are confusing… you better know what lane you need to be in and quick– and the MARTA (subway) is not efficient in moving large numbers of people over the WIDE expanse of the city (that just keeps bulging outward). If you’re not going from the airport into downtown, you might as well forget it.

  • Taylor

    Well, it may not have the worst traffic JAMS out of all these cities, but it certainly has to make it into the top 10 for having the most unsafe and congested traffic.
    Living in Northwest Indiana for 16 years, I can say that Chicago traffic is unbelievable.
    It all truly begins while commuting in (my starting point in this example is Portage, Indiana), whether you take the Skyway in, take the long way through the Southside of Chicago, take the train from South Bend ind, (now that’s a joke, since they’re derailed half the time), or even if you happen to make it through Gary (ind) without getting robbed at a red light or shot in gang crossfire in Glen Park, going into Chicago is awful.
    Once you’re in, youre in. Since the congestion is so bad, there’s no chance to ever change lanes. Many streets don’t have signs, and there’s no city maps to be found. Red lights are discretionary suggestions, and green is the shotgun fire at a horse race. This is defensive driving put to the test. People are fearless in Chicago, and for a good reason.
    People will pull out in front of you, try to cross three lanes of non stop traffic, u turn at an intersection, and so much more. And because of construction, there are many bottlenecks. It is just so wrong how five lanes of traffic can be squeezed into one.
    Never. Ever. Ever drive in Chicago at night without knowing EXACTLY where you are going. Getting lost when it’s dark usually ends in renting a hotel room for the night. Making reference to what I said before, if there’s no touring during the day, then there certainly is no chance in trying to find your way in the dark in the traffic. It doesn’t help that many times you will find yourself driving through really dangerous parts of town.
    On top of all that, there is non stop construction work going on all over NW Indiana and Chicago, year round. Not to mention the SNOW, omg the snow, with Lake Effect. Good Lord. The Loop? Forget it. Lakeshore drive? HA. I have even witnessed the worst combination possible (or so i believe).
    A blizzard during rushhour traffic in the dark with an accident at the only exit that you know how to get home by as you sit in the Southside.
    It’s no wonder Oprah takes a helicopter to work every day.

  • JANE

    I know it might seem funny to some, but the island of oahu in hawaii should be on this list. To commute 36 miles to high school took approximately 1.5 hours on a good day and 2 hours or more with a car accident or minor collision. I drove at least four hours a day. And if there was ever any rain on the horizon you could guarantee an additional 30 min. of drive time to your trip.
    …So i’m just saying hawaii should be mentioned.. I mean that’s a lot of congestion for such a small number of commuters in comparison to the big cities.

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