Chicago City Wire

Chicago drivers spent 155 hours in traffic snarls last year, putting the city in first place nationwide and second in the world for traffic congestion delays, according to a new study from the transportation company Inrix’s 2022 Global Traffic Scorecard.

The Illinois city now has 7% more traffic congestion and delays than it did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the report states. And the cost per driver associated with such traffic is $2,618, and while collective traffic costs in the city have reached $9.5 billion, according to the Inrix report.

In addition, the speed in the downtown area slowed to an average of 11 mph last year during the morning rush hour, the study says. That’s a 27% drop in the average downtown speed compared to the previous year.

The report examined 295 U.S. urban areas and found that 179 of them are below their pre-coronavirus congestion numbers, while 116 cities have surpassed their pre-COVID-19 levels. Worldwide, Chicago was second only to London in its 2022 traffic delays, according to the traffic scorecard

Nationally, the typical U.S. driver spent 51 hours dealing with traffic delays, racking up $869 in costs associated with the lost time, the report said. U.S. fuel costs last year were up 32% on average, and the number of collisions increased 4%. 

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Worst U.S. Cities for Traffic Congestion

2022 U.S. Rank	Urban Area	2022 Delay	Compared to Pre-COVID	2022 Cost per Driver	2022 Cost per City	Downtown Speed (mph)	Change in Downtown Speed
1	Chicago	155	7%	$2,618	$9.5 billion	11	-27%
2	Boston	134	-10%	$2,270	$4.3 billion	11	-27%
3	New York City	117	-16%	$1,976	$10.2 billion	11	-15%
4	Philadelphia	114	-20%	$1,925	$4.5 billion	11	-15%
5	Miami	105	30%	$1,773	$4.5 billion	15	-21%
6	Los Angeles	95	-8%	$1,601	$8.6 billion	19	-17%
7	San Francisco	97	0%	$1,642	$2.6 billion	12	-14%
8	Washington, D.C.	83	-33%	$1,398	$3.5 billion	11	-21%
9	Houston	74	9%	$1,257	$3.7 billion	16	-16%
10	Atlanta	74	-10%	$1,257	$3.1 billion	16	-16%
11	New Orleans	77	-3%	$1,216	$665 million	14	-13%
12	Portland, Ore.	72	-19%	$1,236	$1.2 billion	15	-12%
13	Stamford, Conn.	73	-1%	$953	$465 million	13	-19%
14	Dallas	56	-11%	$932	$3.1 billion	16	-16%
15	Baltimore	55	-35%	$912	$1.1 billion	12	-14%
16	San Diego	54	-23%	$912	$1.3 billion	19	-17%
17	Denver	54	-14%	$892	$1.2 billion	14	-13%
18	Austin, Texas	53	-23%	$770	$850 million	17	-15%
19	Seattle	46	-38%	$912	$1.2 billion	17	-11%
20	Concord, Calif.	54	--	$709	$53 million	18	-10%
21	Providence, R.I.	42	-40%	$689	$500 million	14	-13%
22	Las Vegas, Nev.	41	156%	$689	$622 million	19	-10%
23	San Juan, Puerto Rico	41	-7%	$689	--	20	-5%
24	Nashville, Tenn.	41	14%	$689	$600 million	21	-13%
25	Sacramento, Calif.	36	-44%	$608	$550 million	17	-11%

Source: Inrix 2022 Global Traffic Scorecard