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In Depth: 10 Worst Cities For Commuters

This article is more than 10 years old.


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When you're stuck in traffic on one of these 10 cities' beltways, or stuck in the midst of a train delay, there is at least some consolation in knowing that your complaints are warranted. In these 10 cities, insufficient infrastructure design, poor utilization of public transit, long delays and longer travel times conspire to make these the 10 worst commuting metros in the country. Data are from the Texas Transportation Institute and the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.



© AP Photo/Julie Jacobson

No.10: San Francisco, Calif.

San Francisco's biggest traffic problems are the result of bottlenecks. Due in large part to the city's geography, traffic gets nipped by bridges which force all traffic to a handful of pressure points, because they're the only ways to get in and out. Between mass transit, subways, street cars, trolleys, ferries, carpooling and walking, 28% of metro residents avoid single-driver commuting, the third best rate in the nation, but the delays of 60 hours a year (the second worst, behind Los Angeles) and the high rate of commuters spending an hour or more en route (10.5%) really slow things down.



© AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

No. 9: Los Angeles, Calif.

Los Angeles area traffic is legendary, and drivers have visceral reactions when you mention Interstate 5. The average driver spends 72 hours annually stuck in traffic delays, the worst in the country. But what serves L.A. well is that a surprisingly high percentage of drivers get to their destinations in under 20 minutes (34%), which is only the 13th worst rate in the country. The reason? All those office parks and strip malls dotting the basin make it easy for people to commute between suburbs as opposed to a central downtown location, and that makes commutes shorter in mileage terms.



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No. 8: Houston, Texas

Here, 13% of people carpool, the highest such percentage in cities with over 2 million workers, and third among cities with more than 1 million workers. Still, unlike Dallas and Austin, Houston has largely resisted mass transit system development in favor of expanding roadways, highways and interstates to accommodate more cars. It uses a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) system which drivers can pay to use if their vehicles are carrying less than three people, and the city is expanding its non-HOV toll road system.



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No. 7: Washington, D.C.

Because most of the workers in Washington D.C. are commuting from the Virginia or Maryland suburbs, it can take an exceedingly long time to make it downtown. Here, 15% of commuters take over an hour to get to work, the second highest rate in the country. Drivers spend 60 hours a year stuck in traffic, and only 26% of commuters get to work in under 20 minutes-- the worst rate in the country. The only thing saving D.C. from a worse ranking is its efficiency ranking for carpooling, public transportation and walking, the country's second best.



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No. 6: Tampa, Fla.

Tampa commuters are victims of urban sprawl. As late as 2005, 25% of area properties were classified as investment properties; this rate was almost double the national average. What does this have to do with commuting? It's a good sign that the city is spread out. While Tampa exhibits a very low population density, commuters are stuck in traffic delays 45 hours a year, and 7% take more than an hour to get to work.



© AP Photo/Donna McWilliam

No. 5: Dallas, Texas

Like most Texas cities, Dallas has very little zoning regulation, and has succumbed to sprawl. As the city continues to attract people and jobs, this problem has become compounded. While the DART train system has expanded, it has not done so fast enough to accommodate those living in area exurbs. As a result, Dallas has worse congestion than Houston; fewer people utilize non-single-driver commutes (15% for Dallas, 17% for Houston) and area drivers experience 58 hours of delays annually, compared with Houston's 56 hours.



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No. 4: Orlando, Fla.

Like its Southern neighbor Miami, Orlando's commuting ills stem from a public transportation system that doesn't service a high share of the population and a population that's spread out. Here, only 34% of commuters get to their jobs in less than 20 minutes, which is the ninth worst rate in the country. The main advantage it has over Miami is size. Orlando has less than half the workers on area roads, and fewer people are traveling an hour or more to work.



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No. 3: Miami, Fla.

The commute in and out of Miami carries with it 50 hours of delays per year, something not helped by a skimpy public transit system that services only 3% of commuters daily. Still, it could be worse. Ten percent of Miami residents carpool, which alleviates some of the congestion. The primary problem, as with most Florida cities, is sprawl, which results in only 31% of commuters making it to their workplace in under 20 minutes, the fourth worst rate in the nation.



© AP Photo/Carlos Osorio

No. 2: Detroit, Mich.

Detroit is losing population and has one of the worst commutes in America. Transit design in Motown is, not unexpectedly, tailored to the car, yet traffic patterns aren't smooth. The average Detroit commuter is delayed 54 hours a year, more than residents in California's sprawling "Inland Empire" cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, who log 49 hours of delays; and more than Chicago or Boston, 46 hours each. When you add up all the people that walk, carpool or take pubic transit to work, it's only 11% of the Detroit commuting population; that's the worst of any big city in America.



© AP Photo/John Bazemore

No. 1: Atlanta, Ga.

Here, in the fastest-growing city in America, more people flood the roadways than the infrastructure can handle. Commuters spend 60 hours a year stuck in traffic, second only to those in Los Angeles. If that weren't bad enough, Atlanta is so spread out that only 29% of drivers get to and from work in less than 20 minutes, the third worst rate in the country, and 13% spend more than an hour getting to work, the fourth worst rate in the country. The local train system doesn't service the entire city, and thus fails to relieve the pressure