DC Area Traffic Congestion Ranked 15th In US, 212th Globally

VIRGINIA/DC — Commuters in the Washington, D.C., area could have run 12 Marine Corps Marathons in the amount of time they spent stuck in traffic last year, according to a new analysis of traffic patterns in 80 U.S. cities.

The D.C. area ranked 15th in the U.S. on geolocation mapping software maker TomTom’s Traffic Index. D.C. commuters lost 48 hours to jammed-up traffic in 2021 — on average about 21 percent more time getting where they were going than if they were in uncongested traffic.

This means that a 30-minute trip driven in free-flow conditions in the D.C. area will take six minutes longer when the congestion level is at 21 percent. The extra time spent in traffic in 2021 is down from 29 percent in 2019, the year before the start of the pandemic.

The worst time to travel on D.C. area roads, according to the index, is on Friday between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Globally, traffic congestion in the D.C. area ranked 212 among 404 cities in 58 countries.

Overall, traffic 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
• New York City is the most congested U.S. city. With a congestion level of 35 percent, New Yorkers lose an average of 80 hours a year in backed-up traffic. The city ranks 43rd in the world for traffic congestion.
• 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.

RELATED: Traffic Bottlenecks: VA, DC Home To 2 Truck Congestion Areas