Rush hour traffic traffic is as predictable as the sun setting at night for New Yorkers, but drivers might be shocked to find out how many hours tick away while they’re stuck behind the wheel. On average, New York City drivers spend 89hours a year in traffic, making it the third most congested city in the world, according to a recent global traffic study by INRIX. Los Angeles earned bragging rights as the most congested city on the planet, with drivers spending an average of 104 hours a year in traffic. Coming in at No. 2 was Moscow, with 91 hours spent in traffic annually. American cities earned nine of the top 20 spaces onINRIX’straffic scorecard, which analyzed 1,064 cities in 38 countries to rank congestion.
Population and economic growth alongside continued urbanization are the root causes of congestion, the study found. New York is seeing an uptick in the number of hours commuters spend in traffic in 2016, bumping it up from the No. 8 slot. But New York isn’t alone. In fact, congestion worsened in 2016 in all nine of the United States cities found to have the most traffic.
“As cities strive to update or expand aging infrastructure, the application of big data and analytics to understand and help combat traffic congestion is crucial to the health and development of our cities,” the report states. Here’s the ranking of the world’s 20 most-congested cities:
1. Los Angeles
2. Moscow
3. New York City
4. San Francisco
5. Bogota
6. Sao Paulo
7. London
8. Magnitogorsk, Russia
9. Atlanta
10. Paris
11. Miami
12. Bangkok
13. Caracas
14. Mexico City
15. Washington
16. Dallas
17. Istanbul
18. Boston
19. Chicago
20. Kansk, Russia
New Yorkers deal with world-class traffic jams: Report
