NYC’s drivers spend a grueling 100 hours in traffic — here’s where the Big Apple ranks among the world’s most congested cities
The Big Apple is the greatest city in the world — for sitting in traffic.
For the second year in a row, New York City reportedly has the world’s worst congestion as drivers spend an average of 4 days stuck in traffic at a cost of over $9 billion to the city.
Drivers in the New York metro area lost 101 hours behind the wheel sitting in traffic jams last year, according to the transportation analytics firm INRIX’s Global Traffic Scorecard.
The report collected data from 947 urban areas in 37 countries to compare travel delays, costs and commuting trends.
In 2023, the Big Apple lost $9.1 billion of time with the congestion, costing $1,762 per driver.
The data found the average speed within one mile of the “downtown” core was 11 mph. Drivers reached an average of 15 mph during peak hours and 30 mph during the low point between morning and afternoon commutes.
“Traffic congestion is both a bane and a barometer of economic health; it symbolizes bustling activity yet simultaneously hampers it,” Bob Pishue, transportation analyst at INRIX, told Bloomberg. “The surge in traffic congestion in urban areas indicated a revival of economic hubbub post-COVID, but it also led to billions of dollars in lost time for drivers.”
NYC saw a slight improvement from its congestion report in 2022, where drivers lost 105 hours in traffic.
Last year’s numbers were 11% larger than those gathered during COVID-19, a sign of the area’s return to pre-pandemic congestion where New Yorkers lost 140 hours in 2019.
Mexico City, London, Paris and Chicago rounded out the global top 5 in 2023
Naturally, as the worst rating in the world, New York also topped the charts compared to other cities in the United States — ahead of Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston and Miami.
The busiest corridor in the nation was awarded to I-4 W in Orlando, Florida between Beachline Expressway and Western Beltway, passing Universal Orlando, with 31 hours lost at its 5 p.m. peak time, 124 hours lost last year.
New York’s busiest road was a four-mile stretch on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (I-278) from the LIE to Tillary St with 82 hours lost during the commute.
The world’s worst congestion rating comes as New Yorkers faced the fear of the proposed MTA congestion pricing, which Gov. Kathy Hochul recently suspended.
The plan, initially set to go into effect June 30, sought to charge drivers $15 to enter Midtown Manhattan south of 60th Street.
The MTA board is expected to approve a resolution on Wednesday that “recognizes” that the first-in-the-nation congestion toll “will not be implemented in June 2024 due to the pause in the program.”
Earlier this month Hochul paused the capital plan saying it wasn’t the right time as New Yorkers face a cost-of-living crisis.
The MTA anticipated generating $1 billion in revenues a year from the congestion toll to help finance $15 billion in capital repairs, maintenance upkeep and system expansion.
