NYC Has The Worst Traffic In The United States: Study

NEW YORK CITY — Even dyed-in-the-wool city dwellers who passionately declare "I Love New York" won't be surprised by this one: the Big Apple's traffic is the worst in the U.S., according to a new study.

Out of 80 American cities, New York City's stop-and-go (but mostly stop) traffic ranked first and worst in congestion, the TomTom study found.

Motorists in the city lost 80 hours last year to time stuck in traffic, the study found. The city's congestion level stood at 35 percent, according to the study.

Neither finding should be a surprise to New Yorkers — as one Twitter user noted, the City That Never Sleeps' congestion isn't limited to rush hour.

"Stand Still Traffic at 12:15 in the morning," tweeted @SenseiDende on Feb. 18. "No place like New York City man."

New York City traffic is also globally bad, according to the study.

Congestion in the city ranked 43rd among 404 cities in 58 countries, the study found.

The city's worst-in-America title dovetails with 2021 study, which found it surpassed Los Angeles.

The City of Angels ranked second in the TomTom study.

Traffic congestion overall was higher in 2021 than it was in 2020, when stay-at-home orders kept so many people off the highways that air quality improved, but only slightly. The global congestion level is still 10 percent lower than before the pandemic, according to the report.

Some other findings:

• Istanbul, Turkey, is the world’s most congested city. With a congestion level of 62 percent, motorists there lose an average of 142 hours a year in backed up traffic
• Rush hour has shifted in a third of cities worldwide, including in the United States. In general, congestion decreased in the morning and evening rush hours in U.S. cities, but was similar to 2019 levels around midday and at night.
• In London, traffic congestion put an additional 2.2 megatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere in 2021. Data was tracked in only four European cities — London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris. The report also looked at the effect of electric vehicles on air pollution.