Morning and evening rush hour means one thing in America's biggest cities: sitting bumper to bumper in traffic for hours on end. That's hardly a surprise considering the fact that 86 percent of commutes in the U.S. are done by car and annual vehicle miles surpass 3.2 trillion. All of the congestion has huge financial repercussions and drivers collectively had to pay $305 billion in 2017. An analysis conducted by INRIX found that out of all major cities worldwide, Los Angeles has the worst levels of congestion with drivers losing 102 hours to traffic jams every year.
LA is a large, sprawling and densely packed urban area and even though it has a public transport system, many people have still have little aternative to car travel. Last year, congestion cost the city's drivers $2,828 each and that added up to $19.2 billion for the city as a whole. Even though costs per driver ($2,982) and city ($33.7 billion) due to congestion are higher in New York, drivers still spend less time stuck in traffic than those in LA, 91 hours. San Francisco comes third for congestion in the U.S. with 79 hours lost.
Traffic
America's Most Congested Cities
Description
This chart shows major U.S. cities by peak hours spent in traffic congestion in 2017.
