Istanbul is the world’s most congested city, says INRIX, edging out former No. 1 New York City..
Photo by Simon Skafar: Getty Images.
Congestion can really get you down. No, we’re not talking about the sniffles going around. More like the cargo and people who aren’t.
If time spent in traffic by your company’s employees and products is important to your location decision-making for growth (or consolidation), then you’ll want to factor into your matrix the data in the INRIX 2024 Global Traffic Scorecard released earlier this month. Among the findings by the Kirkland, Washington-based firm (located in the 10th worst congested city of Seattle):
- “Ten U.S. cities made the Top 25 worst congested cities in the world as employees return to the office,” led by sharp increases in trips to city cores in Houston (+25% year over year), Chicago (+13%), Dallas (+12%) and Atlanta (+10%).
- “Congestion resulted in American drivers losing an average of 43 hours to traffic jams in 2024, equal to about one work week, costing $771 in lost time and productivity. Drivers in the most congested cities, New York and Chicago (102 hours), lost more than $1,800 in wasted time.”
- “The country’s biggest increase in traffic congestion came from 15th-ranked Denver, where residents saw a 19% increase in traffic delay compared to 2023.”
- The busiest traffic corridor was I-95 southbound in Stamford, Connecticut, followed by I-93 in Boston. Five of the top 10 busiest corridors were in Chicagoland.
“While the U.S. is still behind pre-2020 levels of traffic,” said Bob Pishue, transportation analyst at INRIX and author of the 2024 Global Traffic Scorecard, “a pullback of remote and hybrid work models, specifically in tech-heavy areas like San Jose, San Francisco, and Seattle, brought a large jump in downtown trips, which is a good sign for metropolitan economies. The data also shows more economic activity Saturday and Sunday evenings as the downtown core returns to life.”
But with life comes waiting in lines.
“Traffic can be an indicator of economic boon,” Pishue said, “but ironically, it’s a hamper on economies in of itself. Each minute spent waiting in traffic results in money and productivity lost.” (INRIX will host a webinar about its results at 2 p.m. Thursday, January 23.)
Motivated by that waste, new congestion pricing went into effect in New York City on January 5, with daily tolls to access Manhattan ranging from $9 for passenger vehicles ($2.25 during off-peak hours) to $21.60 during peak hours for large trucks and tour buses. New Jersey, where Gov. Phil Murphy has loudly opposed the tolls, already has countered with a new incentive program announced this week called the New Jersey Re-assigning In-State Employees Program(NJ RISE), administered by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. It will provide grants to businesses who re-assign New Jersey residents working in another state (such as New York) to a New Jersey location.
“NJ RISE is a $20 million pilot program that will provide grants to businesses principally located out of state that re-assign New Jersey residents currently assigned to work in a state that employs the ‘convenience of employer’ income taxation rule to work in a New Jersey location,” the NJEDA explains. “The grant is equal to the amount of New Jersey Gross Income Tax withholdings of the re-assigned resident employees during one tax year of the business, not to exceed $500,000 in the aggregate per business.”
“From the beginning, I vowed to fight congestion pricing, because New York should not balance its budget on the backs of New Jersey families,” said Governor Phil Murphy in a press release on Tuesday. “Back in 2023, I signed legislation establishing a grant program that would incentivize businesses in states like New York to reassign their New Jersey resident employees to work in our state. This would not only cut down on costs and travel time for commuters, but would keep their tax dollars in New Jersey. Our fight against congestion pricing isn’t over and we won’t allow another state to line its coffers with our hard-earned money.” (Watch for Site Selection’s report on regional traffic congestion and commuting patterns and beyond in the Northeast Regional Review in the March issue.)
New York City is no longer No. 1 in the world for congestion, says INRIX. That dubious honor now goes to Istanbul, which saw a 15% year-over-year increase in traffic congestion to 105 hours of delay per driver, just above the 102 hours in New York and Chicago, 101 in London and 97 in Paris and Mexico City.
Top 25 Most Congested Global Cities
| 2024 Impact Rank (2023 Rank) | Urban Area | Country | 2024 Delay per Driver (hours) | 2023 Delay per Driver (hours) | Change from 2023 | Downtown Speed (mph) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (6) | Istanbul | TUR | 105 | 91 | 15% | 15 |
| 2 (1) | New York City | USA | 102 | 101 | 1% | 13 |
| 3 (5) | Chicago | USA | 102 | 96 | 6% | 14 |
| 4 (2) | Mexico City | MEX | 97 | 96 | 1% | 13 |
| 5 (3) | London | GBR | 101 | 99 | 2% | 13 |
| 6 (4) | Paris | FRA | 97 | 97 | 0% | 13 |
| 7 (10) | Jakarta | IDN | 89 | 65 | 37% | 13 |
| 8 (7) | Los Angeles | USA | 88 | 89 | -1% | 22 |
| 9 (9) | Cape Town | ZAF | 94 | 83 | 13% | 14 |
| 10 (12) | Brisbane | AUS | 84 | 74 | 14% | 21 |
| 11 (14) | Bangkok | THA | 74 | 63 | 17% | 16 |
| 12 (8) | Boston | USA | 79 | 88 | -10% | 13 |
| 13 (13) | Philadelphia | USA | 77 | 69 | 12% | 14 |
| 14 (11) | Miami | USA | 74 | 70 | 6% | 20 |
| 15 (16) | Dublin | IRL | 81 | 72 | 13% | 15 |
| 16 (15) | Rome | ITA | 71 | 69 | 3% | 15 |
| 17 (19) | Houston | USA | 66 | 62 | 6% | 17 |
| 18 (20) | Brussels | BEL | 74 | 68 | 9% | 12 |
| 19 (21) | Atlanta | USA | 65 | 61 | 7% | 18 |
| 20 (28) | Warsaw | POL | 70 | 61 | 15% | 17 |
| 21 (22) | Melbourne | AUS | 65 | 62 | 5% | 18 |
| 22 (18) | Washington, DC | USA | 62 | 63 | -2% | 12 |
| 23 (27) | Seattle | USA | 63 | 58 | 9% | 18 |
| 24 (25) | Milan | ITA | 64 | 60 | 7% | 18 |
| 25 (17) | Toronto | CAN | 61 | 63 | -3% | 13 |
Rankings data courtesy of INRIX
“Four cities in the Global Top 10 alone saw double-digit increases in traffic delay compared to 2023,” said INRIX. “For comparison, only five cities in this year’s U.S. Top 25 saw double-digit increases, with zero coming in the top 10. Additionally, three out of four cities in the 2024 Global Top 25 that saw year-over-year decreases in traffic congestion came from the U.S.”
The INRIX study also lists the top 25 busiest traffic corridors. Seven of them are in New York and the rest mostly are distributed in other large metros, with exceptions such as No. 1 Stamford and No. 15 Lexington, Kentucky (the city’s “chicken-lane” stretch of Nicholasville Road at evening rush hour).
Top 25 Most Congested U.S. Cities
| 2024 Impact Rank (2023 Rank) | Urban Area | 2024 Hours Lost (2023) | Delay Change | 2024 Cost per Driver | 2024 Cost per City | Downtown Speed (mph) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (1) | New York City NY | 102 (101) | 0.01 | $1,826 | $9.5 B | 13 |
| 2 (2) | Chicago IL | 102 (96) | 0.06 | $1,826 | $6.6 B | 14 |
| 3 (3) | Los Angeles CA | 88 (89) | -0.01 | $1,575 | $8.5 B | 22 |
| 4 (4) | Boston MA | 79 (88) | -0.1 | $1,414 | $2.7 B | 13 |
| 5 (6) | Philadelphia PA | 77 (69) | 0.12 | $1,378 | $3.3 B | 14 |
| 6 (5) | Miami FL | 74 (70) | 0.06 | $1,325 | $3.4 B | 20 |
| 7 (8) | Houston TX | 66 (62) | 0.06 | $1,181 | $3.5 B | 17 |
| 8 (9) | Atlanta GA | 65 (61) | 0.07 | $1,164 | $2.9 B | 18 |
| 9 (7) | Washington DC | 62 (63) | -0.02 | $1,110 | $2.8 B | 12 |
| 10 (10) | Seattle WA | 63 (58) | 0.09 | $1,128 | $1.8 B | 18 |
| 11 (12) | Nashville TN | 63 (56) | 0.13 | $1,128 | $1.0 B | 23 |
| 12 (11) | San Juan PR | 58 (57) | 0.02 | $1,038 | $109 M | 22 |
| 13 (14) | Baltimore MD | 48 (44) | 0.09 | $859 | $1.0 B | 14 |
| 14 (13) | San Francisco CA | 46 (45) | 0.02 | $823 | $1.3 B | 14 |
| 15 (22) | Denver CO | 44 (37) | 0.19 | $788 | $1.0 B | 15 |
| 16 (17) | Dallas TX | 41 (38) | 0.08 | $734 | $2.4 B | 18 |
| 17 (20) | Stamford CT | 47 (40) | 0.18 | $841 | $300 M | 15 |
| 18 (15) | Pittsburgh PA | 43 (43) | 0 | $770 | $700 M | 20 |
| 19 (18) | Honolulu HI | 45 (42) | 0.07 | $806 | $300 M | 18 |
| 20 (16) | Charlotte NC | 41 (41) | 0 | $734 | $800 M | 19 |
| 21 (25) | San Antonio TX | 39 (35) | 0.11 | $698 | $700 M | 18 |
| 22 (21) | Austin TX | 39 (38) | 0.03 | $698 | $700 M | 17 |
| 23 (19) | Portland OR | 38 (39) | -0.03 | $680 | $700 M | 16 |
| 24 (24) | New Orleans LA | 39 (37) | 0.05 | $698 | $400 M | 17 |
| 25 (28) | Tampa FL | 34 (32) | 0.06 | $609 | $800 M | 25 |
Rankings data courtesy of INRIX
For comparison’s sake, it’s a worthwhile exercise to hold up the INRIX results next to the Top 100 Bottlenecks report issued annually by the Atlanta-based American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), whose focus is on the nation’s trucking industry. While Chicagoland is still well represented with five of the top 25 bottlenecks, metro Atlanta (including the stretch of I-75 in McDonough) takes the cake with six.
Oddly, Miami, No. 6 on the INRIX list, had no bottlenecks in the ATRI Top 100. ATRI Vice President Jeffrey Short this morning explained the reasons why.
“Our research uses ATRI data that generates exclusively from freight trucks, so our findings are focused on impacts to those vehicles,” he writes in an email. Overall, Miami is a very congested place. For congestion costs to the trucking industry, it is ranked second among metro areas. But it is not a crossroads like Atlanta, for instance. Atlanta has much higher truck volumes and concentrated congestion at critical interchanges (e.g. I-85 at I-285). Miami is not a crossroads — it is a start or end point — and the congestion is more dispersed.”
Five of the top 10 worst traffic bottlenecks for truck drivers identified last year by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) are in the top 10 most congested U.S. cities identified this month by INRIX.
Map courtesy of ATRI
How does logistics activity factor in? Last year, the logistics report published Site Selection’s January issue featured charts culled from the Conway Projects Database documenting which states and metros led in attracting their share of the 6,282 U.S. facility investments with a logistics function documented between New Year’s Day 2021 and mid-November 2023:
Texas, Illinois, Georgia and California make the top five by number of facility investments and by number of truck bottlenecks. Ohio is the exception — a sign of the exceptional work at keeping the goods movement sector moving that resulted in the state’s No. 1 ranking in Site Selection’s Global Groundwork Index ranking of U.S. states in September 2024.
In December, ATRI reported that traffic congestion on U.S. highways added $108.8 billion in costs to the trucking industry in 2022. “The total hours of congestion decreased slightly in 2022 from record 2021 highs due to a softening freight market, but the cost of operating a truck during this period increased at a much greater rate,” ATRI stated. “As a result, the overall cost of congestion increased by 15.0 percent year-over-year. This level of delay is equivalent to more than 430,000 commercial truck drivers sitting idle for one work year and an average cost of $7,588 for every registered combination truck.”
ATRI has found that the top 10 states in delays each experienced costs of more than $8 billion, led by Texas ($9.17 billion), California ($8.77 billion), and Florida ($8.44 billion). “Combined, the top 10 states ultimately account for more than half (52%) of trucking’s congestion costs nationwide,” said ATRI. “Additionally, the metropolitan areas with the highest congestion costs included New York City ($6.68 billion), Miami ($3.20 billion), and Chicago ($3.14 billion).
“With rising costs putting pressure on businesses and consumers alike, minimizing delays caused by congestion is more important than ever,” said A. Duie Pyle COO of Supply Chain Solutions Frank Granieri in an ATRI press release. “Addressing these challenges requires a shared commitment to modernize our infrastructure and strengthen the backbone of our economy: resilient and efficient supply chains.” — Adam Bruns
Hilco Real Estate Sales this month announced March 7, 2025, as the qualifying bid deadline for a portfolio of 812 land parcels located throughout the West and South Side neighborhoods of Chicago, Illinois, where the Chicago Transit Authority’s $5.75 billion Red Line Extension will alleviate congestion and make some of those properties more attractive.
Photo courtesy of Hilco