L.A. La-La-Lands at No. 1 for Worst Traffic in World

CARS.COM — Audiences have been reveling in the storybook whimsy of the Oscar-nominated film “La La Land” the world over. And while that fantastic opening musical number on a gridlocked Los Angeles freeway is great fun to watch on the silver screen, sitting in traffic is not fun at all in reality — and when it comes to car congestion, L.A. is literally the worst place in the world.

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Inrix, the Kirkland, Wash.-based transportation analytics and connected-car services firm, released its annual Global Traffic Scorecard this week. And out of more than a thousand cities in more than three dozen countries, the so-called City of Angels proves to be hell on wheels, with commuters there spending an average of 104 hours of their lives staring at someone else’s taillights during peak congestion hours.

L.A. (by far) beat out New York, San Francisco, Atlanta and Miami in terms of hours spent in traffic, with those other cities’ averages ranging from 65 hours to 89 hours. But Angelenos didn’t suffer the most in terms of percentage of total drive time spent in congestion or in the resulting monetary setbacks.

The average L.A. driver spent 12.7 percent of their overall drive time in traffic, compared with 12.8 percent for both New York and San Francisco, and 13.4 percent for Boston. The highest congestion rate in the U.S. is Stamford, Conn., despite not ranking in the top traffic tier, with 14 percent of drivers’ overall commute spent in gridlock. Each L.A. driver came up $2,408 lighter as a result of traffic, the city as a whole $9.7 billion. The cost of congestion, however, was still higher in NYC, where drivers dropped $2,533 and the city $16.9 billion.

“A stable U.S. economy, continued urbanization of major cities, and factors such as employment growth and low gas prices have all contributed to increased traffic in 2016,” Inrix senior economist Bob Pishue said in a statement. “Congestion also costs our country hundreds of billions of dollars, threatens future economic growth and lowers our quality of life. Traffic truly is a double-edged sword.”

And that sword will only continue swinging, economists say, as driving demand continues to grow while roadway supply remains flat.

Here are the 10 worst commuting cities in the U.S., followed by the average hours spent in traffic:

10. Seattle, 55 hours
9. Chicago, 57
8. Boston, 58
7. Dallas, 59
6. Washington, D.C., 61
5. Miami, 65
4. Atlanta, 71
3. San Francisco, 83
2. New York, 89
1.  Los Angeles, 104

So where should you move to if your aversion to sitting in traffic is so great that it’s your main quality-of-life measure? Here are the top 10 least congested U.S. cities:

10. Athens, Ala., 4.2 hours
9. Greensboro, N.C., 4.2
8. Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, Wash., 4.2
7. Bangor, Maine, 4.2
6. Peoria, Ill., 3.8
5. Utica, N.Y., 3.7
4. Abilene, Texas, 3.5
3. Wichita Falls, Texas, 3.4
2. High Point, N.C., 3.2
1. Parkersburg, W.V., 3

Beyond borders, L.A. also outranks every other world city in commuting misery, logging 13 more hours annually stuck in traffic than the global No. 2 city, Moscow. But L.A. is hardly alone in the world: American cities occupy five of the top 10 spots on the Inrix global roster, with New York and San Francisco at Nos. 3 and 4, respectively, Atlanta at No. 8 and Miami at No. 10. They join Bogota, Colombia, in fifth place; Sao Paulo in sixth; London in seventh; and Paris in ninth.

As a nation, the U.S. ties with Russia for the third-worst commute, with the average American spending 42 hours in traffic in 2016. Thailand ranks worst in the world among nations, with 61 hours, followed by Colombia and Indonesia with 47 hours each.