Portland Ranked 10th Worst for Traffic in the Country

A study done by TomTom measured congestion in 200 cities throughout the world. The results are in and Portland ranked as the 10^th worst city for traffic congestion in the United States. The methodology behind the study was to measure travel times during the entire day and during peak period to compare them with travel times during non-congested periods. All of the data is taken from actual GPS measurements from TomTom’s historical traffic database.

Portland is said to have a 26% congestion level, which compares with the top most congested city, Los Angeles at a 39% congestion level. The delay per day for someone who commutes 30 minutes is 20 minutes. That equals about 77 hours per year spent in traffic. According to the study Thursday morning and evening are the worst times for congestion. The lowest amounts of congestions are Friday and Monday morning.

The top 10 cities in the US for the worst congestion is:

1. Los Angeles
2. San Francisco
3. Honolulu
4. New York
5. Seattle
6. San Jose
7. Miami
8. Chicago
9. Washington D.C.
10. Portland

Portland’s traffic congestion increased 4% from last year’s study when it ranked number 9. Portland drivers who spent 30 minutes commuting in 2013 saw that bump up to 50 minutes, on average, in 2014 according to this study.