D.C. Commuters Spend More Than Three Days a Year Stuck in Traffic

Washington, D.C., you’ve got your bragging rights whether you want them or not.

Those who argue the D.C. area has the worst rush hour traffic in America now have hard evidence to back up that claim, thanks to a recent study by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and Irnix, a company that analyzes travel data.

The study found D.C. commuters spend an average of 82 hours per year in traffic delays, more than commuters in Los Angeles (80 hours), San Francisco (78 hours), New York (74 hours) and San Jose (67 hours).

“Our growing traffic problem is too massive for any one entity to handle — state and local agencies can’t do it alone,” Tim Lomax, a report co-author, said with the release of the traffic data. “Businesses can give their employees more flexibility in where, when and how they work, individual workers can adjust their commuting patterns, and we can have better thinking when it comes to long-term land use planning. This problem calls for a classic ‘all-hands-on-deck’ approach.”

Many of the cities with the worst traffic congestion endured this traffic due to a growth in population that exceeds the national average of 0.7 percent. However, Washington, D.C., was not one of those cities.

On a national level, delays from traffic congestion caused commuters to use an additional 3 billion gallons of fuel, and kept drivers stuck in their cars for about 7 billion extra hours. That’s an average of 42 hours per rush-hour commuter, and a cost of about $160 billion, or $960 per commuter.

To view the complete study, click here.