L.A. Tops Global Traffic Congestion List

Congratulations Los Angeles! We just won the top spot in a global ranking of cities. 

Too bad it's for the worst traffic congestion in the world. 

INRIX, a company that specializes in car services and transportation analytics, found that out of the 1,361 cities in 38 countries it looked at, Los Angeles topped the list for worst gridlock for the sixth year in a row.

We'll pause now to allow you time to celebrate (which, going by this study, means you're sitting in traffic). 

In the largest study of its kind, INRIX found that drivers in and around Los Angeles spent a staggering 102 hours battling traffic congestion during peak hours in 2017. To contrast - New York motorists spent a mere 91 hours battling peak hour gridlock. 

It's not all bad news for Los Angeles drivers. The study shows L.A. drivers have lower peak period tie-ups than San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and Portland, and when it comes to nighttime travel, L.A. city streets can't be beat. 

All that traffic congestion adds up - the study found that direct and indirect costs of gridlock totaled nearly $305 billion for U.S. motorists in 2017 - or around $1,445 per driver. The U.S. also accounted for 10 of the top 25 cities worldwide with the worst traffic congestion. 

Some cities managed to cut down on the time motorists spend in traffic. South Bend, Indiana reduced their peak hours spent in traffic by 25 percent, with several Texas cities seeing significant improvement, including El Paso (-13 percent), Austin (-9 percent) and Dallas (-9 percent). 

The data was taken for the study by looking at more than 300 million different sources covering over 5 million miles of road. 

Photo: Getty Images


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