America's worst commutes. Most congested highways ranked

[webby]

America's 50 Worst Commutes

Read to see how the data was established:

To find America's Highways from Hell, we started with newly released data from traffic-tracking firmINRIX, which culls data from 4 million vehicles nationwide using GPS units and a smartphone application.
We pared and ranked our top 50 worst metropolitan areas for traffic for 2010 using INRIX's Travel Time Tax—the percentage of time it takes to navigate the area's roadways during rush hour compared to uninterrupted travel periods. Los Angeles, no surprise, fared the worst, with a TTT of more than 35 percent. Then, using INRIX's analysis, we culled:
The worst corridor or bottleneck: A bottleneck is typically less than 3 miles long while a corridor is usually more than 3 miles. A corridor is a stretch of consecutive bottlenecks that experience significant congestion. While many larger metropolitan areas have corridors, smaller areas have only bottlenecks and experience relatively brief periods of congestion.
The rush-hour travel tax for the worst corridor or bottleneck: The Los Angeles section of the Riverside Freeway has one particularly bad stretch of about 20 miles. With a Travel Time Tax of 183 percent, it will take the average driver 183 percent more time to travel this stretch during rush hour than during uninterrupted travel periods. TTT is the price the driver pays for using the corridor during rush hour.
Average minutes per mile: At a rate of 65 miles per hour, driving a mile should take just under one minute. Not so on the Highways from Hell. A single mile on some of these roads can take more than four minutes to drive during the worst rush hours.
Do you drive one of America's Highways From Hell?

#1, Riverside Freeway/CA-91 Eastbound, Los Angeles

Worst corridor: Costa Mesa Freeway exit through McKinley St. exit
Length of worst corridor: 20.7 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 183%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 57 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 2.73 minutes


#2, Lunalilo Freeway/I-1 Eastbound, Honolulu

Worst corridor: HI-92 exit through S Vineyard Blvd/Ward Ave.
Length of worst corridor: 3.9 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 244%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 21 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 4.08 minutes

#3, California Delta Highway/CA-4 Westbound, San Francisco

Worst corridor: Hillcrest Ave. through Somersville Rd.
Length of worst corridor: 3 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 318%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 11 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 3.76 minutes


#4, I-95 Southbound, Washington, D.C.

Worst corridor: I-395 through Russell Rd./Exit 148

Length of worst corridor: 23.9 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 129%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 52 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 2.18 minutes



#5, Bruckner/Cross Bronx Expressways (I-95 Southbound), New York

Worst corridor: Conner St/Exit 13 through Hudson Terrace
Length of worst corridor: 11.3 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 231%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 43 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 3.76 minutes


#6, I-35 Southbound, Austin-Round Rock

Worst corridor: US-183/Exit 239-240 through Woodland Ave.
Length of worst corridor: 6.7 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 226%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 36 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 3.32 minutes




#7, Connecticut Turnpike (1-95 Northbound), Bridgeport

Worst corridor: Field Point Rd. through Mill Plain Rd./Exit 21

Length of worst corridor: 22.2 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 44 minutes
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 104%
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 1.97 minutes



#8, I-405 Southbound, Seattle

Worst corridor: NE 14th Street/Exit 14 through SE Coal Creek Parkway/Exit 10

Length of worst corridor: 4.5 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 183%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 13 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 2.81 minutes


#9, Bayshore Freeway (US-101 Southbound), San Jose

Worst corridor: Fair Oaks Ave. through De La Cruz Blvd.
Length of worst corridor: 4.2 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 172%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 11 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 2.56 minutes

#10, Kennedy/Dan Ryan Expressways (I-90/I-94 Eastbound), Chicago

Worst corridor: I-294/Tri State Tollway through Ruble St./Exit 52B
Length of worst corridor: 15.9 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 195%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 49 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 3.08 minutes

 

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#11, I-5 Northbound, Portland

Worst corridor: Corbett Ave./Exit 298 through N. Tomahawk Island Dr./Exit 308
Length of worst corridor: 10.1 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 174%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 30 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 2.98 minutes



#12, CA-78 Eastbound, San Diego

Worst corridor: Rancho Santa Fe Rd. through Mission Rd.
Length of worst corridor: 4.2 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 150%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 10 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 2.34 minutes



#13, I-494 Eastbound, Minneapolis

Worst corridor: Prairie Center Dr./Exit 1 through Penn Ave./Exit 6
Length of worst corridor: 5.7 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 159%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 14 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 2.50 minutes



#14, Southwest/Eastex Freeways (US-59 Northbound), Houston

Worst corridor: Buffalo Speedway through I-45
Length of worst corridor: 4.8 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 202%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 14 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 2.97 minutes


#15, Southeast Expressway (1-93 Northbound), Boston

Worst corridor: Randolph Ave./Exit 5 through Columbia Rd./Exit 15
Length of worst corridor: 10.4 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 179%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 29 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 2.81 minutes


#16, Hampton Roads Beltway (1-64 Westbound), Virginia Beach

Worst corridor: Tidewater Dr./Exit 277 through Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel
Length of worst corridor: 6.4 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 151%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 16 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 2.49 minutes


#17, Baltimore Beltway Inner Loop (I-695 Eastbound), Baltimore

Worst corridor: Reisterstown Rd./Exit 20 through Loch Raven Blvd/Exit 29
Length of worst corridor: 10.2 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 96%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 19 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 1.91 minutes



#18, Schuylkill Expressway (I-76 Westbound), Philadelphia

Worst corridor: Oregon Ave./Passyunk Ave./Exit 347 through Belmont Ave/Exit 338
Length of worst corridor: 9.5 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 130%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 23 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 2.44 minutes


#19, North Freeway (I-35W Northbound), Dallas

Worst corridor: Rosedale St./Exit 49B through Western Center Blvd./Exit 58
Length of worst corridor: 9.5 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 157%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 24 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 2.54 minutes


#20, Ventura Freeway (US-101 Northbound), Oxnard

Worst corridor: Camarillo Springs Rd. through Las Posas Rd.
Length of worst corridor: 5.2 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 62%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 8 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 1.59 minutes

 

[webby]

I can't wait to see how many people have dealt with these spots, or currently deal with them. I saw one person report that they've driven 10 of these in their life due to work.

 

[Damaca]

I've survived the following:

#1 a few times traveling. There is no doubt about it, LA traffic just sucks
#4 is god awful. Its the main reason why I will not work in NoVA but would gladly go to the MD side of the Potomac
#5 I made this mistake one time once is all it took
#6 I've been through Austin maybe 4 times and dealt with this traffic. Its horrible
#10 Twice a week for work. But even non rushhour drives can be a PITA. 90/94 and you can add 290 and 294 as well as parts of 55 to this Mix. Chicago is almost as bad as LA but the city streets are passable
#16 I live in this town. I moved within a mile of my office to avoid this mess. It is horrible. No one here can drive and it shows, daily on 64.
#17 Crap. I've been thinking about moving there. Crap crap crap.
#18 the Surekill! I grew up in this area and have travelled Schuykill on a regular basis over the last 18 years that I've had a license. Its a narrow road. The trouble is trucks, they have a nasty habit of jack knifing on it. Really, I'm impressed that this was only #18. That means its improving.

Schykill:

Look at that mess. Thats my home city. lol.


But when the traffic doesn't bite it. Its a scenic drive:

 

[webby]

Well, you have to take the ranking with some grain of salt. It's all done off gps data, & cell phone gps data. So, if there are a lot of commuters just driving it without those signals, it could still be much worse than this already shows. That is a bad list of places you've already had to endure.

 

[rippars]

1, 3, 4, 9

#4 is by far the worst i've driven. taking the back roads get me to work faster so i dont even touch it on the way into work in the morning . i check the traffic before the drive home from work also. i live 7 miles away from work and it would take me about half an hour to get to work in traffic but in the last snow storm this year i only had to go about 4 miles on that stretch of road and it took me about two hours just on 395 and a total of 3.5 hours to get home that night.

sigh drivers just suck period in the dc metro area.

 

[webby]

that beats my worst drive. I had an 8 mile commute, and on the worst day it took 2hrs 45min in LA. Normally, it was just shy of an hour, and if I did it in 45min, it was an amazing day. I do not miss it at all.

 

[The Beard of Win]

#19 - That's only half of the problem with that stretch. i35 right there is horrible but loop 820 that crosses i35 right in that area is absolutely awful. Both of them are major corridors to different parts of the city/surrounding cities and both of them are only 2 lanes in each direction. Huge bottleneck. For a good while there that interchange was rated in the top 5. Hell, I've turned down a job because I would've had to drive down the highway during rush hour, making my drive about 1.5 hours instead of the 30 minutes it would be if the roads were actually built properly.

 

[LizBot]

4, 5, 7.. all in the same day. Luckily it was at odd times.. Or else I'd die.

 

[webby]

LA drivers are going to love this -

If you've ever driven through Los Angeles, you understand how terrible the traffic can be. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it, and your commute can come to a grinding halt regardless of the hour or day. For one weekend, however, LA commuters will know exactly when traveling on the 405 will result in extreme gridlock.
California construction workers will be shutting down a 10-mile stretch of the freeway for 53 hours. On July 16th and 17th, workers will begin demolishing a portion of the 50-year-old Mulholland Bridge. Later in the year, the freeway will again be closed so that the rest may be taken down.

City officials have provided notice well ahead of the impending closure, but there's no doubt that motorists will find themselves immersed in some severe cases of gridlock. This is Southern California we're talking about, and traffic there is a part of life. That said, county supervisor Zev Yaroslovsky has some poignant advice for worried motorists:

The best alternative route is to totally avoid the 405 area, completely avoid it, don't come anywhere near it, don't even think about coming to it. Stay the heck out of here.​

We'll see how that goes...

 

[LizBot]

Then what's the point?

 

[07TLX]

I have dealt with these...

4- Why I avoid 95 around D.C as much as possible
5- My first and last time driving to NY, unfortunately I was in a van helping my brother move. I take the train in now....
10- 12 hrs in a car driving and I get stuck in that, almost lost the Civic that night as well...
17- Same thing as D.C but Baltimore
18- "Fastest" way to get from my house to Philly, if your going out before 6am M-F and before 9am Sat and Sunday..... Good thing the back road to Philly to avoid that is somewhat better....

 

[KennyGS]

Their time per mile (worst case rush hour) is a joke for #18. I see how they base their data, so I realize it may not be entirely representative.

I had to commute in and out of west Philly using the Schuylkill Expressway(a.k.a. Surekill Crawlway) for 5 years in the mid to late 80's. During that entire time they were working on "improvements", which required traffic to drop down from four lanes to one-lane "cattle-chutes" in each direction. On several occasions I can remember it becoming a parking lot for hours.

Good times...

 

[LizBot]

That was back when gas cost like nothing...