So how does your city rank with traffic

[Justified]

yet another reason why I love my city

[q]Atlanta claims two of nation's worst traffic bottlenecks

LESLIE MILLER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Atlanta has two of the nation's top 10 worst highway traffic bottlenecks, according to a study by American Highway Users Alliance.

The figures for a study released Thursday show the number of major U.S. traffic chokepoints - places where highways cannot handle all the cars - rose 40 percent over five years.

Atlanta's Brookwood Interchange - I-75 at I-85 interchange - ranked sixth in the list. The interchange handles 259,128 cars daily and is responsible for 21,045,000 annual hours of delay.

Atlanta's Spaghetti Junction - I-85 at I-285 - ranks 10th on the list with 17,072,000 annual hours of delay.

Atlanta also claimed the 17th-worst bottleneck - the I-285 and I-75 interchange. The interchange north of Atlanta is responsible for 14,333,000 annual hours of delay.

Overall nationally, there were 233 major bottlenecks in 2002, compared with 167 in 1997, said the study by Cambridge Systematics Inc., a Cambridge, Mass., company that specializes in transportation planning. The report also said seven of the 18 previous top chokepoints had disappeared as a result of construction projects.

The report was commissioned by the American Highway Users Alliance, a group that is lobbying Congress this year for a bigger highway-mass transit bill than President Bush wants. The current six-year highway spending bill expires at the end of this month.

The worst bottleneck in the nation is the Ventura Freeway at Interstate 405 in Los Angeles, where California highway officials estimate traffic is jammed for nearly five hours every weekday afternoon. Four of the 10 worst bottlenecks are in the Los Angeles area.

Behind the Ventura Freeway, the worst bottlenecks were the Interstate 610 West-Interstate 10 interchange in Houston; Chicago's I-90/94-I-290 interchange; the I-10 interchange with state roads 51 and 202 in Phoenix; and the San Diego Freeway-I-10 interchange in Los Angeles.

ON THE NET

American Highway Users Alliance: http://www.highways.org

Documents with state-by-state listings are available at: http://wid.ap.org/documents/btlnck.pdf

Traffic bottlenecks at a glance

The 24 worst highway bottlenecks, followed by the number of vehicles handled daily and annual hours of delay, according to a study by American Highway Users Alliance.

Los Angeles - Ventura Freeway US-101 at I-405 interchange; 318,000 cars; 27,144,000 hours.

Houston - I-610 at I-10 interchange; 295,000 cars; 25,181,000 hours.

Chicago - I-90/94 at I-290 "Circle Interchange;" 293,671 cars; 25,068,000 hours.

Phoenix - I-10 at SR-51/202 "Mini-Stack" interchange; 280,800 cars; 22,805,000 hours.

Los Angeles - I-405 at I-10 interchange; 296,000 cars; 22,792,000 hours.

Atlanta - I-75 at I-85 interchange; 259,128 cars; 21,045,000 hours.

Washington, D.C. - I-495 at I-270 interchange; 243,425 cars; 19,429,000 hours.

Los Angeles - I-10 at I-5 interchange; 318,500 cars; 18,606,000 hours.

Los Angeles - I-405 at I-605 interchange; 318,000 cars; 18,606,000 hours.

Atlanta - I-285 at I-85 "Spaghetti Junction" interchange; 266,000 cars; 17,072,000 hours.

Chicago - I-94 at I-90 interchange; 260,403 cars; 16,713,000 hours.

Phoenix - I-17 at I-10 "the Stack" interchange to Cactus Road; 208,000 cars; 16,310,000 hours.

Los Angeles - I-5 at SR-22/57 "Orange Crush" interchange; 308,000 cars; 16,304,000 hours.

Providence, R.I. - I-95 at I-195 interchange; 256,000 cars; 15,340,000 hours.

Washington, D.C. - I-495 at I-95 interchange; 185,125 cars; 15,035,000 hours.

Tampa, Fla. - I-275 at I-4 "Malfunction Junction" interchange; 201,500 cars; 14,371,000 hours.

Atlanta - I-285 and I-75 interchange; 239,193 cars; 14,333,000 hours.

Seattle - I-5 and I-90 interchange; 301,112 cars; 14,306,000 hours.

Chicago - I-290 Eisenhower Expressway between exits 17b and 23a; 200,441 cars; 14,009,000 hours.

Houston - I-45 Gulf Freeway at US-59 interchange; 250,299 cars; 13,944,000 hours.

San Jose, Calif. - US-101 at I-880 interchange; 244,000 cars; 12,249,000 hours.

Las Vegas - US-95 at I-15 "Spaghetti Bowl" interchange; 190,600 cars; 11,152,000 hours.

San Diego - I-805 at I-15 interchange; 238,000 cars; 10,992,000 hours.

Cincinnati - I-75 from Ohio River Bridge to I-71 interchange; 136,013 cars; 10,088,000 hours.[/q]

 

[senrab]

nah nah my city didn't make the list.

 

[BAW]

Los Angeles - I-5 at SR-22/57 "Orange Crush" interchange; 308,000 cars; 16,304,000 hours.

The ?Orange Crush? is probably the most complex interchange in the U.S. It spans two cities (Orange and Santa Ana) and is 18 lanes at its peak. Despite its advanced design, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) estimates that congestion occurs for five continuous hours every weekday afternoon.

 

[Mr. BAW]

That survey came out on Weds. and I had driven (crawled, rolled, braked) through 3 of them!!!

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

Makes me so glad I don't own a car.

 

[nbcrusader]

LA would dominate the list even more if it were not for some recent improvements.

The "El Toro Y" 405 & 5 interchange is much better after they added a few more lanes. At one point, there are 26 lanes across the freeway.

 

[Justified]

every time I have been in LA no matter what time it is I am always stuck in traffic. i will say y'all take the medal, and you can keep it.

 

[Liesje]

my city's not on the list b/c it's not near as big as those cities, but we do have the busiest street in the entire state and of course it's actually a highway that goes through town and just happens to be the road with all the best restaurants and stores.

The longest jam I've ever been in was I-75 south of Atlanta while coming home from spring break - they had closed it down to ONE lane!!! Now I've only been to Atlanta passing thru, but I know I-75 is usually between 4-7 lanes each way. One lane? YEAH RIGHT! And of course after hours, everyone gets thru and there's a few cones in the other lanes and no visibile construction

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

26 lanes? I get nervous driving in a four lane motorway. That's just scary.

 

[meegannie]

TWENTY-SIX? I think the most I've driven on is six.

 

[najeena]

The traffic in Seattle sucks, but here just a few miles away the worst we deal with is the ferry traffic at our 4-way stop. Thank God for our moat.

 

[IWasBored]

the traffic in my town all depends on what time of year it is. it's a town, not a city, not a whole lot of people, but the population more than doubles during the school year because of the colleges in the area, mostly because of the university which has a student body of about the population of the town.

you don't want to drive through the center of town from september to late may, but during the summer you could crawl across the street (not in a crosswalk either...jay-crawling?) without worry.

now bridge traffic in hadley...that's another story.

 

[Justified]

my city's not on the list b/c it's not near as big as those cities, but we do have the busiest street in the entire state and of course it's actually a highway that goes through town and just happens to be the road with all the best restaurants and stores.

The longest jam I've ever been in was I-75 south of Atlanta while coming home from spring break - they had closed it down to ONE lane!!! Now I've only been to Atlanta passing thru, but I know I-75 is usually between 4-7 lanes each way. One lane? YEAH RIGHT! And of course after hours, everyone gets thru and there's a few cones in the other lanes and no visibile construction

yes there are portions of I-75 in Atlanta that has 7 lanes + . it is insane. today i spent 1 hr in traffic because 5 lanes were shut down due to a wreak.

 

[kellyahern]

26 lanes? I get nervous driving in a four lane motorway. That's just scary.

26, yikes!

and I see "Malfunction Junction" made the list - thank goodness I don't have to use it that often

drove past it today though and made sure I stayed as far to the left as possible

 

[DiGi]

DC is terrible. The traffic here can just plain suck at times. I use to sit in both of the bottlenecks listed on that report when I lived in MD and worked in VA. There were days were it took me 3 hours to get home from work. I finally had to move South Some of the worst DC traffic is not even on this list

 

[IWasBored]

DC is terrible. The traffic here can just plain suck at times. I use to sit in both of the bottlenecks listed on that report when I lived in MD and worked in VA. There were days were it took me 3 hours to get home from work. I finally had to move South Some of the worst DC traffic is not even on this list

i've got some relatives who live in maryland, and one summer we went down to visit them. on the way back we got stuck outside of DC in traffic for aout 6 hours. there was an accident and and there was a large section of the highway closed off, and the traffic helicopter landed right there in the road.

edit: maybe it was more like 4 hours...but i was about 13 at the time and that was the longest i've ever been stuck in traffic. and it's still the longest.

 

[fah]

No Canadian cities listed but thats ok. Few weeks ago a large truck overturned on a local bridge (major traffic artery) around noon. It wasn't cleared until after 6 pm, traffic was mental. everything was gridlocked. Luckily I was not working that day but several neighbours were, their normal 30 minute commute took 2 to 3 hours. Traffic sucks.

 

[nbcrusader]

DC is terrible. The traffic here can just plain suck at times. I use to sit in both of the bottlenecks listed on that report when I lived in MD and worked in VA. There were days were it took me 3 hours to get home from work. I finally had to move South Some of the worst DC traffic is not even on this list

I'll give you that. DC traffic is horrible. Very few true freeways.

 

[Liesje]

The traffic in Seattle sucks, but here just a few miles away the worst we deal with is the ferry traffic at our 4-way stop. Thank God for our moat.

My BUS prof. said one of the reasons Boeing moved to Chicago was b/c of traffic in Seattle.

 

[The_Sweetest_Thing]

I think Toronto should be there. Let's just include the entire 401 highway. It's plain ridiculous. They finally created another highway to alleviate the 401 conjestion, but charged a toll fee, which now rose, so no one takes it anyway.