GPS Tracking Device Helps Determine Cities with the Worse Traffic
29 May 2012If you drive in Los Angles, you spend nearly 56 hours per year sitting in stop-and-go traffic. Drivers in Miami cut that time in half, spending roughly 28 hours per year sitting in stop-and-go traffic.
These are just two of the statistics compiled by INRIX, a leading traffic information provider. In its annual Traffic Scorecard Annual Report, INRIX analyzes and compares the status of traffic congestion in the nation’s top 100 cities yearly, which it has been doing since 2007.
INRIX’s Traffic Scorecard is reviewed by a number of sources, including city planners, departments of transportation, economists, academia professionals, and regular, everyday drivers, making its report a trusted resource and benchmark for understanding the nation’s traffic congestion.
In conducting their research for the 2011 study, over 100 million vehicles — including passenger cars, airport shuttles, long haul trucks, and service delivery vans — were equipped with a GPS tracking device. The motorists’ speed, direction, location, and time spent on the road were all captured via these GPS tracker devices.
While not surprising, New York City and LA ranked as two of the most bumper-to-bumper congested cities. Honolulu won the not-so-coveted award of being the most traffic congested citiy; drivers in Honolulu spend an average of 58 hours annually behind the wheel in traffic.
The 2011 Top Ten Worst Cities for Traffic in America and hours wasted, according to INRIX, were:
1. Honolulu (58 hours)
2. Los Angeles (56 hours)
3. San Francisco (48 hours)
4. New York (57 hours
5. Bridgeport, CT (42 hours)
6. Washington, D.C. (45 hours)
7. Seattle (33 hours)
8. Austin (30 hours)
9. Boston (35 hours)
10. Chicago (36 hours)
On average, Americans spend approximately a full work week, or 40 hours per year, sitting behind the wheel in commuter bottlenecks.
Overall, INRIX found a 27 percent drop nationwide in traffic from 2010 to 2011. On the surface this may appear to be a good thing. Yet, the reason for the drop is likely due to a weak employment situation, where less people were employed leading to fewer people on the road heading to work. Add that to higher fuel prices causing people to combine errands or choosing to drive less, it makes perfect sense that there’s been a drop in traffic congestion.
What city had the most improved traffic congestion according to the study? Actually it’s two: the Twin Cities, otherwise known as Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.
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