• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
The US city with the worst traffic revealed where drivers lose 112 hours a year stuck in jams

Home> News> US News

Published 16:43 7 Dec 2025 GMT

The US city with the worst traffic revealed where drivers lose 112 hours a year stuck in jams

Surprisingly, it's not Los Angeles or New York City

Liv Bridge

Liv Bridge

Drivers lose more than 100 hours a year stuck in traffic jams in this major city.

If you've ever taken a road trip across the US, you'll probably know there are some cities you're better off not traveling through via car, like New York City and Los Angeles.

Last year, drivers lost an estimated 4.7 billion hours due to traffic in the US.

According to Tom Tom Traffic Index, 10 kilometres through the Big Apple could take as long as 31 minutes - and the same distance takes a little more than 26 minutes in San Francisco.

Advert

Yet new analysis from Global Traffic Scorecard, based on metrics from INRIX, has placed Chicago as the city with the worst traffic in America, tipping NYC off the top spot from last year.

The research has found drivers in the Windy City lose a staggering 112 hours per year sitting in traffic on average, a hike of 10 per cent from the previous year and coming in at more than double the average (49 hours) of time lost in congestion across the entire country.

New York is probably not a good idea to drive around (Getty)
New York is probably not a good idea to drive around (Getty)

However, Chicago isn't the worst of the bunch, with the city ranking third globally for bad traffic, behind Mexico City and Istanbul, the worst offender.

New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Washington and Seattle were also considered amongst the worst US cities for traffic.

Interestingly, Baltimore and Philadelphia shot to the top of this year's list for having the largest congestion increase in the top 25 cities, with delays hiking by 31 per cent in each, costing drivers more than $85 billion in lost productivity.

As for the worst-affected routes, both directions of I-95 near Stamford in Connecticut came out the busiest, followed by the I-278 in NYC and I-4 close to Orlando, Florida.

Tom Tom adds that traveling 10km through Chicago takes around 19.51 minutes, only narrowly beating Honolulu, Hawaii (20.39).

Chicago has shot to the top of the charts (Getty)
Chicago has shot to the top of the charts (Getty)

The insight comes as traffic backing up around Chicago's O'Hare International Airport has become a point of contention in recent months, as data pins it as home to some of the worst traffic growth of any US airport.

The situation has become so bad that renovation planners are even reportedly thinking about changing the timescales of the ongoing works, scheduled to be completed by 2033.

Worldwide, Barranquilla (Colombia), Kolkata, Bengaluru, Pune (India) and London (UK) are consistently some of the worst places to drive, according to the Tom Tom Traffic Index.

Kyoto in Japan, Lima in Peru, Davao City in the Philippines, Trujillo, also in Peru, and Dublin in Ireland, also made the top 10 for poor travel times per 10km.

Featured Image Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Topics: Chicago, Travel, US News, Cars

Liv Bridge
Liv Bridge

Liv Bridge is a digital journalist who joined the UNILAD team in 2024 after almost three years reporting local news for a Newsquest UK paper, The Oldham Times. She's passionate about health, housing, food and music, especially Oasis...

X

@livbridge

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

3 mins ago
2 hours ago
  • Richard A. Brooks / Getty Images
    3 mins ago

    3 members of Norwegian ski jumping team suspended after tampering with uniform crotch

    The unsanctioned uniform alterations were classed as cheating by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS)

    News
  • Getty Stock Images
    2 hours ago

    Mom, 42, diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer reveals the first sign that her doctors missed

    Laura Behnke had one big difference when she had cancer which meant it was more difficult to spot

    News
  • Getty Images/Matt Winkelmeyer
    2 hours ago

    Why Emily Willis' legal case and jury trial could be thrown out two years after cardiac arrest

    The former adult performer's family is bringing a court case against a rehab clinic after being left unable to live independently

    News
  • John Normile/Getty Images
    2 hours ago

    Experts confirm 12 cities that will see the worst damage from catastrophic Winter Storm Fern'

    A massive winter storm is building over the Rockies as 12 cities are warned to brace for the worst of the snow, ice, and freezing conditions

    News
  • Experts reveal American hotspot is the 'worst' tourist destination in the world
  • Police rescued girl, 6, after car stopped for traffic violation revealed something much more sinister
  • Man who's visited every US state reveals worst American city which 'should be avoided at all costs'
  • Man living in US city where sun disappears for 67 days a year explains why he’d never move away