Chicago has the worst traffic in America, according to a new analysis, overtaking the previous year’s number one, New York City.
Drivers in the Windy City lost at least 112 hours a year in traffic on average, up 10 percent from the previous year and more than double the U.S. average of 49 hours lost to congestion, according to this year’s Global Traffic Scorecard report from transportation metrics firm INRIX.
Traffic has weighed heavily on local politics there, too.
Congestion around Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, one of the busiest in the country, has prompted planners to consider altering the timeline of an ongoing renovation of the hub scheduled through 2033. A different 2024 report from the Chaddick Institute at DePaul University found that O’Hare had the most traffic growth of any U.S. airport in 2024.
This week, a car crash on I-57 in Chicago killed three people and hurt five others when a vehicle rammed a group of individuals standing next to the scene of a different wreck.
Chicago traffic isn’t bad, just compared to the U.S., though. The city ranks third globally for bad traffic, the report found, behind Mexico City and global leader Istanbul.
Back in the U.S., the other cities with the worst traffic were, in descending order, as follows: New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Washington, and Seattle.
Baltimore and Philadelphia both saw the largest congestion increases among the top 25 cities on the list, with traffic delays rising by 31 percent in both areas.
Together, congestion in these cities costs the drivers more than $85 billion in lost productivity, an 11.3 percent increase over 2024.
Drivers lost around 4.7 billion hours due to traffic in the U.S., according to the report.
Certain corridors were also particularly bad, with both directions of I-95 near Stamford, Connecticut, ranking as the busiest in the country, followed by I-278 in New York City and I-4 near Orlando, Florida.
New York’s recently implemented congestion pricing plan is thought to have kept it from ranking higher on the list.
