NYC Traffic Worse Than Ever, But Not As Bad As Beijing!

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A new study from IBM has released the first Global Commuter Pain study today, surveying drivers in 20 cities across six continents about their rush hour commutes. Though commuters worldwide say that congestion has gotten worse in the past three years, New York ranked relatively low on the list of cities with bad traffic.

The Commuter Pain Index—which takes into account issues like time stuck in traffic, start-stop traffic, gas prices, stress and anger—ranked New York at a measly 19, just above Houston and Stockholm. Los Angeles is still the first in the country with 25, but Beijing and Mexico beat out the rest of the world, tying at 99 out of 100. Also, just 10% of New Yorkers said they would work more if their commute were easier, as compared to 40% of workers in New Delhi and 25% in Mexico City.

A few New Yorkers told the Post that stats didn't matter; their commutes are still awful. One BMW mechanic blamed cabbies, the standard punching bag. "They just don't care. They don't know how to drive," he said. "I ride a motorcycle now to get around the traffic faster, and cabbies have twice knocked me down." Another driver blamed pedestrians, saying, "It's chaos sometimes, there's no law enforcement." At least there's always the subway, right?

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By Jaya Saxena in News on June 30, 2010 12:47 PM

Comments [rss]

kevd

Maybe if they charged drivers to commute into Manhattan, there would be enough of a disincentive that fewer would drive, meaning less traffic... Crazy idea, right? So crazy, it just might work!

And hey, maybe the user few could be high enough that drivers would actually pay the complete cost of building and maintaining the infrastructure they use.

REALITY CHECK

The new cycling lanes have somewhat of an effect, however I think those are very necessary.

The combination of pedestrians malls, hour-specific through lanes, a flurry of no-left-turn zones have caused traffic to slow down noticeably. The DOT should nix all of these.

They also need to fix some bottlenecks that have gotten really bad lately due to new no-left-turns and the change of populations downtown.

Allen Street should get rid of the medians and be made one-way uptown above Delancey, Chrystie and Essex should be downtown one-way above Delancey. Avenue A should be downtown one-way, Ave B uptown only. Watch traffic jams disappear by the Williamsburg bridge.

Potty Boy

I drive in Manhattan all the time, and the cabbies are some of the most predictable, and therefore, safest of drivers.

2%

i totally agree. if only all those cyclist drove cars, traffic would be much more pleasant and everyone would get along.

paulie

This is all the cyclists fault.

Gotham Extremist

and all those EMPTY green cycle paths that go unused.

Ed

This headline is not a contradiction. Its possible for traffic in a city to get worse, and still not be as bad as traffic in the city with the worst traffic in the world.

This is anecdotal, but it seems like there are more people on the road who either have forgotten how to drive or forgotten to exercise basic courtesy. So it seems to be more nerve wracking if you are trying to use the streets, either as a driver, cyclist, or pedestrian.