DC Metro Area Home to 3 of Nation's Top 50 Traffic Bottlenecks

The DC metro area has the distinction of having three traffic bottlenecks among the nation’s top 50, according to a new study out Monday.

The American Highway Users Alliance’ study shows that the worst of those three bottlenecks is located on a stretch of Interstate 395, between the Washington Boulevard exit and the George Washington Parkway exit. That particular bottleneck ranks #26 on the list of the nation’s top 50 worst bottlenecks.

Here’s what the study has to say about this particular highway horror:

This segment is a 1.1-mile stretch on I-395 between the Pentagon and the 14th Street Bridge which provides access across the Potomac River into the Downtown Washington and the U.S. Capitol area from Virginia. The segment wraps around the Pentagon between the George Washington Memorial Parkway and Washington Boulevard with merges, divergences, and on- and off-ramps, and is just north of Reagan National Airport. The 1.1 million hours of annual total delay in this bottleneck are valued at about $27 million worth of lost time.

Those other two DC metro areas that made the top 50 list?

The Capital Beltway (I-495) is the highway most commonly associated with area congestion, but the bottlenecks where express lanes end at the Springfield Interchange (#44) and near the Dulles Toll Road (#41) are just outside the top 30 list.

See the entire study here.