While Los Angeles has earned the reputation of a commuter city with stop-and-go traffic at all hours of the day, new analysis finds the City of Angels isn’t America’s worst traffic offender.
The GPS technology company TomTom has released its annual Traffic Index Rankings, which analyzed hundreds of cities in dozens of countries to determine where traffic most often comes to a crawl.
The ranking is put together by looking at travel times, CO2 emissions and cost of a short trip in various vehicle types.
While Los Angeles was in the top ten of the traffic index rankings, another California city landed higher on the list.
Below are the results of the TomTom Traffic Index Rankings for the United States:
- New York City
- Washington, D.C.
- San Francisco
- Boston
- Chicago
- Baltimore
- Seattle
- Philadelphia
- Los Angeles
- Miami
New Yorkers experience the longest travel times in America, averaging more than 24 minutes to travel only six miles. Those stuck in traffic during rush hour could waste as much 112 hours per year sitting in their cars.
In San Francisco, that same trip takes about 20 minutes. Those stuck in traffic lost about 75 hours per year, the analysis showed.
But its sister city to the south fared better in a few categories, including travel time and average speed for that same trip.
Los Angeles drivers were able to travel approximately six miles in an average of 15 minutes, despite heavier average congestion than San Francisco.
But the city’s famed rush hour continues to steal precious moments away from commuters. L.A. drivers lost an average of 89 hours per year stuck in rush hour traffic. That was the second-highest number in the nation.
The combined metropolitan area of Ventura County, including Oxnard, Ventura and Thousand Oaks, came in at No. 43 on the list.
Surprisingly, all of America’s cities performed relatively well compared to other major urban areas. New York came in only at No. 20 on the worldwide list; L.A. landed at No. 233.
The worst traffic in the world, according to TomTom? London.
Drivers across the pond can expect a six-mile drive to take longer than 37 minutes to complete. The results are not entirely unexpected, as the vast majority of Europe’s cities were built densely packed hundreds of years before the arrival of the automobile.
Toronto was the worst traffic city in North America, landing at No. 2 in the worldwide rankings.
For the complete list of all 387 cities across the globe, and to read more about TomTom’s methodology for its rankings, click here.
