Each year the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M comes out with their Urban Mobility Scorecard, which of course is auto-centric like all other traffic planning. The ranking criteria calculates number of hours spent each year in congestion, which then leads to other criteria such as productivity wasted, extra fuel spent, etc. From a highway planning perspective, the criteria makes sense.

The top cities for the worst traffic are as follows. I’ve always thought their top-congested cities seemed fishy. In all, fast-growing Sun Belt metros typically rank higher for congestion than they do population, while slow-growing Rust Belt metros typically rank much lower for congestion than for population or anything else.

It’s also worth noting that many of these Sun Belt metros (like Tucson) are typically getting freeway expansion projects, whereas the Rust Belt metros (like Cleveland and Detroit) frequently are.

1 Washington-Arlington, DC-VA-MD-WV

2 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA

3 San Francisco-Oakland, CA

4 New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT

5 San Jose, CA

6 Boston, MA-NH

7 Seattle-Tacoma, WA

8 Chicago, IL

8 Houston, TX

10 Riverside-San Bernadino, CA

11 Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington, TX

12 Atlanta, GA

12 Detroit-Ann Arbor, MI

12 Austin, tX

12 Miami, FL

12: Portland-Vancouver, OR-WA

17 Phoenix-Tempe, AZ

18 Honolulu, HI

19 Denver-Boulder, CO

19 Oklahoma City-Norman, OK

 

I have always appreciated Google’s real-time traffic feature, which not only shows real-time traffic in all major city, but also has a feature that simulates typical traffic. I set the simulation for 5:30 p.m., peak of rush hour, on a Friday. Below are a curated snapshot of Google’s traffic simulation for the same time on the same day, at the same zoom level (although wider regions like Dallas-Ft. Worth have been shrunk by WordPress).

Albuquerque, NM: 36 hours annual delay, #70

 

Atlanta, GA: 52 hours annual delay, #12 (tie)

 

Austin, TX: 52 hours annual delay, #12 (tie)

 

Bay Area –

San Francisco-Oakland, CA: 78 hours annual delay, #3; San Jose, CA: 67 hours, #5

 

Birmingham, AL: 34 hours annual delay, #77 (tie)

 

Boston, MA: 64 hours annual delay, #6

 

Baton Rouge, LA: 47 hours annual delay, #23

 

Columbus, OH: 41 hours annual delay, #45 (tie)

 

Charlotte, NC: 43 hours annual delay, #35 (tie)

 

 

Chicago, IL: 61 hours annual delay, #8

 

Cincinnati-Covington, OH-KY: 41 hours annual delay, #45 (tie)

 

Northeast Ohio –

Cleveland, OH: 38 hours annual delay, #55 (tie); Akron, OH: 27 hours, #89

 

Columbia, SC: 38 hours annual delay, #55 (tie)

 

Charleston, SC: 41 hours annual delay, #45 (tie)

 

Capital Region

Washington-Arlington, DC-VA-MD-WV: 82 hours annual delay, #1; Baltimore, MD: 47 hours, #23

 

Denver-Boulder, CO: 49 hours annual delay, #19 (tie)

 

Detroit-Ann Arbor, MI: 52 hours annual delay, #12 (tie)

 

Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington, TX: 53 hours annual delay, #11

 

Des Moines, IA: 12 hours annual delay, not ranked

 

Grand Rapids, MI: 39 hours annual delay, #51 (tie)

 

Hartford, CT: 45 hours annual delay, #29 (tie)

 

Houston, TX: 61 hours annual delay, #8 (tie)

 

Indianapolis, IN: 43 hours annual delay, #35 (tie)

 

Jacksonville, FL: 38 hours annual delay, #55 (tie)

 

Kansas City-Overland Park, MO-KS: 39 hours annual delay, #51 (tie)

 

Knoxville, TN: 35 hours annual delay, #72 (tie)

 

Southern Cal –

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA: 80 hours annual delay, #2; Riverside-San Bernadino, CA: 59 hours, #10

 

Louisville, KY-IN: 43 hours annual delay, #35 (tie)

 

Little Rock, AR: 38 hours annual delay, #55 (tie)

 

Memphis, TN-AR-MS: 43 hours annual delay, #55 (tie)

 

Miami, FL: 52 hours annual delay, #12 (tie)

 

Milwaukee, WI: 38 hours annual delay, #55 (tie)

 

Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI: 47 hours annual delay, #23 (tie)

 

Nashville-Murfreesboro, TN: 45 hours annual delay, #29 (tie)

 

New Orleans, LA: 45 hours annual delay, #29 (tie)

 

New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT: 74 hours annual delay, #4

 

Oklahoma City-Norman, OK: 49 hours annual delay, #19 (tie)

 

Omaha, NE: 32 hours annual delay, #83

 

Orlando-Kissimmee, FL: 46 hours annual delay, #27 (tie)

 

Philadelphia-Trenton-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE: 48 hours annual delay, #22

 

Phoenix-Tempe, AZ: 51 hours annual delay, #17

 

Pittsburgh, PA: 39 hours annual delay, #51

 

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA: 52 hours annual delay, #12

 

Providence-Fall River, RI-MA: 43 hours annual delay, #35 (tie)

 

Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC: 34 hours annual delay, #77 (tie)

 

Richmond-Petersburg, VA: 34 hours annual delay, #77 (tie)

 

San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX: 44 hours annual delay, #33

 

Sacramento, CA: 43 hours annual delay, #35 (tie)

 

San Diego, CA: 42 hours annual delay, #43

 

Seattle-Tacoma, WA: 63 hours annual delay, #7

 

Salt Lake City-Provo, UT: 37 hours annual delay, #66

 

St. Louis-Clayton, MO-IL: 43 hours annual delay, #35 (tie)

 

Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL: 41 hours annual delay, #45 (tie)

 

Toledo, OH-MI: 38 hours annual delay, #55 (tie)

 

Tucson, AZ: 47 hours annual delay, #23 (tie)

 

Tulsa-Broken Arrow, OK: 44 hours annual delay, #33 (tie)

 

Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA: 45 hours annual delay, #29 (tie)

 

Surprised to see that the Urban Mobility Scorecard shows Tucson having the #23rd worst congestion, which is significant, while Google’s simulation shows virtually no traffic at all. Tucson also benefits from a well-planned downtown streetcar and year-round good weather for bicycling.

Looking around the nation at congestion scenarios also underscores the folly of Rust Belt metros’ investments in highway expansions at the expense of transit budgets. Cities from Indianapolis to Grand Rapids to Pittsburgh have very little congestion relative to the rest of the nation. Even Cincinnati, where traffic is regarded as the worst in Ohio, is much lower on congestion metrics than Oklahoma City, where sprawl and boom-bust growth, in addition to infrastructure disinvestment, have wreaked havoc on cross-metro commutes.