Seattle Makes Top Ten Most Congested Cities (The other nine are listed as well)

KIRO TV ^ | February 23, 2010 | Jenni Hogan

[Stoat]

Seattle Makes Top Ten Most Congested Cities

Jenni Hogan
KIRO 7 Traffic Anchor

Posted: 7:30 am PST February 23, 2010Updated: 8:18 am PST February 23, 2010

 

SEATTLE -- Seattle continues to be ranked the ninth most congested city in the United States. The ranking is according to a study released Tuesday morning by Inrix, a Kirkland-based company that provides traffic and navigation services for the nation.The KIRO 7 traffic team looked through all of the data and found the study showed that annually, drivers in the greater Seattle metro area who normally commute 30 minutes have wasted 46 hours last year stuck in traffic. The worst stretch of freeway is SR-520 westbound at Bellevue Way/Lake Washington Blvd on Thursdays from 6 to 7 p.m. At this time, traffic crawls at only 5 mph.Nationwide, the report found that traffic congestion hit bottom in March last year after 18 months of steady declines and is back on the rise as the economy shows signs of recovery. According to the report, how quickly traffic congestion returns to pre-recession levels will be dependent on jobs and fuel prices.Los Angeles, New York and Chicago rounded out the top three most congested cities. The worst bottleneck in the nation is westbound on the Cross Bronx Expressway (I-95) in New York City. This section of freeway wastes 94 hours of peoples’ time per week, the study calculated.

Here is the complete list of the top 10 most congested cities:

1. Los Angeles, Calif.

2. New York, N.Y.

3. Chicago, Ill

.4. Washington, D.C.

5. Dallas, Texas

6. Houston, Texas

7. San Francisco, Calif.

8. Boston, Mass

9. Seattle, Wash.

10. Philadelphia, Pa.

[Stoat]

This is nothing new to anyone who has lived around Seattle for any length of time but there is hope....there are several MAJOR road projects in the pipleline for Seattle which should easily bring us up to to the number one spot withing the next couple of years! Soon we won't have to be embarrassed at being so far behind in the pack. It won't be long before downtown Seattle traffic has ground to a near halt, and people will find that rollerskating around town will be far faster than driving.

[RobRoy]

This is one of the reasons I bought my farm in rural Kentucky.

I think it is also funny that coming into Seattle on I-5 you have five lanes max, but going into Louisville on 65 (a much smaller city) you have six. :)

Congestion in Seattle is so bad that it keeps me home. It’s just not worth the hassle.

[RobRoy]

You aughta try going southbound on I-405 through Renton on a Saturday afternoon. It is a parking lot. It is also criminal.

[RebelTXRose]

Buffalo didn’t make the list! YEAH!!
I don’t miss the traffic in Dallas at all. I’d do it again though if I can get back down there.

[beckysueb]

Nashville, TN. is hell durring rush hour and the majority of the rest of the time. So is Atlanta. I’d hate to see the traffic in those cities listed.

[Stoat]

Inrix National Traffic Scorecard

http://scorecard.inrix.com/scorecard/

 

 

[oh8eleven]

Buffalo didn’t make the list!
That's because no one lives in Buffalo.
And even if they did ...

[doorgunner69]

I cannot believe Honolulu didn’t make the list.............

[KarlInOhio]

This section of freeway wastes 94 hours of peoples’ time per week, the study calculated.

Huh? What does that mean? There are only 168 hours in a week, so this implies that the average driver is stuck in traffic over 13 hours a day. That makes no sense at all.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I convinced my husband to try surface roads during peak times in Houston - he has learned back roads and shortcuts and routinely beats others to locations because of their insistance on using the “parking lot” freeways.....

[Stoat]

I cannot believe Honolulu didn’t make the list.............

Honolulu ranks at #38

http://scorecard.inrix.com/scorecard/Top100Metros.asp

[pissant]

If they just counted fruits, nuts and fairies, we’d be closer to #1

[The KG9 Kid]

I lived in San Francisco almost ten years and know a few tricks to navigating the roads to cut time dramatically no matter how congested the streets and highways seems to be, just as long as you don't want to drive to Outer Sunset.

Even if traffic is bumper to bumper on I-280N or 101N, you can always get off on Bayshore and rip through the ghetto. You'd be surprised how many liberals wouldn't think of chancing it.

I also think that cutting through the backside of Potrero Hill off Cesar Chavez to 3rd Street corridor is the fastest way into downtown. You could spend a half hour on the freeway with everyone else, or five minutes going my way.

Potrero Hill's streets are like a ghost town compared to the rest of San Francisco if you want to drive like Steve McQueen in 'Bullitt'.

[Stoat]

This section of freeway wastes 94 hours of peoples’ time per week, the study calculated.

Huh? What does that mean? There are only 168 hours in a week, so this implies that the average driver is stuck in traffic over 13 hours a day. That makes no sense at all. 

Here is their methodology for determining congestion values in bottleneck areas such as the Cross Bronx Expressway that you mention:

http://scorecard.inrix.com/scorecard/methodology.asp

 

Bottlenecks

Each road segment’s bottleneck factor can be compared with others in a metropolitan area and against all bottlenecks nationally. It can also be compared year-to-year, as we have in this Scorecard.

Congestion – and how to measure it – can be in the eye of the beholder. Is congestion defined as how bad a road segment is at its worst or is it how often the segment gets “congested” (and what is the threshold for “congestion” anyways – tapping the brakes, stop and go conditions, etc.)? INRIX has developed a method that combines both the amount of time a road segment is congested with the intensity of congestion during those periods. The process used to analyze each of the road segments is as follows:

• The same RS and HS values are utilized as in the overall congestion by metropolitan area portion of the study;
• All 168 hours of the week are considered, not just the 40 “peak hours.” As will be evident in the data, severe bottlenecks aren’t just limited to peak hours;
• For each hour of the week that the average speed is less than 50% of the reference speed, the hour is considered “congested;”
• For all “congested” hours, the average intensity of the congestion is determined by establishing an average travel time ratio;
• The total Bottleneck factor equals the number of hours of congested by the average travel time ratio.
• Each road segment’s Bottleneck factor can be compared with others in a metropolitan area and against all Bottlenecks nationally. It can also be compared year-to-year, as we will do going forward.

*********************************************

The way that the congestion figure was expressed in the article is not particularly well stated in my view. I think that it would be more accurate to say that the road is congested for so many hours over the course of an average week, as opposed to it 'wasting x hours of peoples' time'. The way they're expressing it in the article would be the case only if people spent 100% of their time every week on that particular road ;-)

 

[tatown]

I don’t think I’ve ever been on either I-5 or I-405 when the traffic wasn’t bad.

[Battle Axe]

Tiny little Modesto, CA is 100th. I can’t believe it.

BA

[RobRoy]

4:30 AM Saturday’s I take my wife to work. Passed a state patrolman doing 86 in my Scion xB on I-405 between Tukwila and Renton once.

It cost me a bit, but not much. ;)

[Stoat]

If they just counted fruits, nuts and fairies, we’d be closer to #1

I believe that we would be a solid #2, right after San Francisco.

And it really seems to upset most of the voters here that we have not surpassed San Francisco in that regard.

"sigh"

A Twitter friend told me last night that housing costs are low in much of Texas. Everyone from Texas that I've ever met has been REALLY nice, and it seems that whenever I hear news about Texas on FR it's almost always about something good happening there.

And I'm guessing that in Texas they won't become nosey and upbraid you for eating a steak in a restaurant. Yes, this happened to me at the 13 Coins in downtown Seattle. This guy sitting next to me at the counter just started lecturing me, out of the blue, about how bad my steak was for me. I told him, with the waiter listening, that I had thought we all came to the 13 Coins for a guilt-free dining experience. The waiter smiled broadly and the nosey guy shut up.

[tatown]

Wow 86mph on I-405 near Southcenter...pretty amazing.

[ArrogantBustard]

Dallas and Houston are worse than Boston????