Nation's Capital Most Gridlocked City of the Year

The average Washingtonian spends 74 hours a year delayed in traffic, wasting 37 gallons of excess fuel just idling. If you were to put a dollar amount to the fuel and lost opportunity, the average D.C. resident paid $1,495 to be stuck in traffic.

The nation’s capital overtook Chicago, which had the worst congestion in America in last year’s study. Chicago is still the second worst.

The change in rank isn’t likely noticeable to drivers in the top five cities, which include the Los Angeles, Houston and New York areas. “If you are in the top four or five cities, you live your life around congestion and you plan around it,” David Schrank, an associate research scientist at Texas A&M, told the Chicago Tribune.

At an aggregate level, individual delays make a huge impact on the economies of urban areas. For example, drivers in Chicago’s metropolitan area lost 367 million hours collectively to congestion, costing the region $8.2 billion, the study said. That’s some food for thought before you question any new multibillion-dollar infrastructure investment that’s supposed to reduce traffic.

Continue reading below to see the top 10 list of the most congested large cities in America.