Driving Sports

INRIX, a provider of traffic and navigation services, today released its 3rd Annual INRIX National Traffic Scorecard, revealing that traffic congestion and commute travel times in 2009 are back on the rise as the economy emerges from the recession.

You can check out their 150-page free report at http://inrix.com/scorecard/. But to save you the eyestrain, L.A. is the worst, and two cities in Florida (and Modesto, California) are the best in the Top 100. Seattle - home to Driving Sports - was 9th.

Gridlock across the U.S. bottomed out in March and April 2009 and congestion levels have begun to bounce back ending the year slightly ahead of 2008. In fact, 58 of the top 100 most populated cities in the U.S. experienced modest increases in traffic congestion levels last year. Over the course of 2009, increases in traffic from lower than average fuel prices (nearly $1 less per gallon than 2008) and a recovering economy slightly outpaced drops in commuting from the loss of over 5 million jobs. While unemployment kept morning commutes lighter than normal, traffic was up nearly every other hour of the day as individuals hit the roads in search of work or other trips - a 25 percent increase.

"So goes traffic, so goes the economy. The results suggest the holiday from increasing gridlock we've experienced the past few years is over," said Bryan Mistele, INRIX president and CEO. "An excellent indicator of economic trends, traffic congestion can tell us whether businesses are shipping products, whether people are going to work, and whether shoppers are going to the mall. That said, our analysis indicates that what happens going forward in terms of increasing gridlock, much like the economy, can be summed up in one word: Jobs."

By analyzing traffic on major highways in the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, the Scorecard provides both a glimpse into the health of our economy as well as a comprehensive snapshot into the intractable issues of urban traffic congestion. According to the report, the top 10 most congested cities in 2009 were:

1. Los Angeles, Calif.
2. New York, N.Y.
3. Chicago, Ill.
4. Washington, D.C. (up from 6th in 2008)
5. Dallas, Texas
6. Houston, Texas (down from 4th in 2008)
7. San Francisco, Calif.
8. Boston, Mass.
9. Seattle, Wash.
10. Philadelphia, Pa. (up from 11th in 2008)