Is New York's Traffic Worse Than LA's?

Flickr user Pabo76

New York has never been known for its barren streets, but for years we could at least comfort ourselves on not being as bad as LA when it comes to traffic. In 2009 New York City had the second worst traffic in the nation, and according to the 2010 National Traffic Scorecard we're still #2. However, New York's I-95 SB (NE Thwy, Bruckner/Cross Bronx Expys) was ranked as the worst traffic corridor in the country. Which raises the question: What will New Yorkers do to feel superior if they can't make fun of LA's traffic?

The city is also pretty close to #1; we have 99% of peak period congestion of LA, up from 86% last year. The worst time to travel is Friday between 5:15 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., though Thursday commutes are the worst for morning rush hour. And in an even more depressing stat, the NTS says, "drivers traveling our nation’s ten worst traffic corridors annually spend an average of one month idle in traffic." Traffic expert Sam Schwartz told the Daily News, If this continues, within one year we very well may be the most congested city in America." Combine this with the constant subway clusterfuck and you've got a good case for bike lanes! Or just convincing your boss to let you work from home.

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By Jaya Saxena in News on March 8, 2011 2:14 PM

Comments [rss]

Miles Bader

It's a stupid comparison in the first place -- they're very different places. LA is relatively wide and expansive, and they bought big-time into the "car above all else" religion, destroying vast swathes of their city in the name of the automobile. NYC isn't, and didn't, and has a more balanced transportation system.

da_phonz

meh

daphonz

"drivers traveling our nation’s ten worst traffic corridors annually spend an average of one month idle in traffic."

One month idle in traffic per month? That's pretty counter productive.

Phil Ryan

I have to agree with hotstepper, LA has more lanes per freeway and is in a standstill, while NYC has less road capacity for more people.

Guest

i'd take a gamble and say that our major highways are in much worse shape -- which adds to our traffic woes. i was driving on the BQE this weekend and it felt like we were heading across the Rockies in a wagon train.

Tower18

Whenever I'm in LA, I *feel* like the traffic is bad, but then I look down at the speedometer and notice that even in a "traffic jam," I'm averaging about 30-40mph, which would be a dream in Manhattan. It's just that it feels slow because it's half as fast as you should be going, whereas in New York, 30-40 is about as fast as you'll ever go (late night runs on FDR and West Side Highway notwithstanding).

Now, if you have to commute like 70 miles each way from foreclosure-villes in the hinterlands like Riverside, then yeah, traffic blows.

GothamExtremist

When hipsters start riding them bikes in LA.........

nicemarmot

I lived in LA for years and the traffic is definitely worse here. More people travel by car there, but there are more options - in New York if you live in a certain area you'll only have one or two options for getting around, whereas in LA there are freeways everywhere. And if you know your way around the surface streets, they're never crowded the way surface streets are here, and you can make your way around a traffic jam. In the years I lived in LA I only remember getting stuck in traffic for more than 15 minutes maybe half a dozen times, always at rush hour.

The superior element here, of course, is that you can avoid the traffic entirely by taking public transit, which LA has basically none of at all. But that opens up its own can of worms too.