The world's most traffic-congested cities

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You may think your daily commute might be bad, but drivers in Brussels face the worst traffic jams in the world according to the annual Traffic Scorecard compiled by traffic and navigation service provider INRIX in Kirkland, Wash. The second worst city in the world for traffic jams – Antwerp – is likewise situated in Belgium, a modest-sized European kingdom that’s otherwise best known for beer, chocolate, waffles and the Smurfs. Who knew?

INRIX says traffic congestion overall in Europe dropped by 18 percent last year compared to 2011, and continues to decline, with an additional 23 percent dip in the first quarter. This is largely attributed to the still-sagging European economy, with the nations that continue to suffer the effects of the European debt crisis, like Portugal, Spain and Italy, are likewise those with the largest drops in traffic congestion. On the other hand, Luxembourg – which enjoys both the highest per capita income and the highest gross domestic product per capita in the world – was the only European country to experience an increase in traffic congestion last year at 29 percent.

On the other hand, traffic jams over here in the U.S. are on the upswing, having risen by 6.4 percent over the first quarter of the 2013 following two straight years of decline. As in Europe, the number of cars on the road can be pegged to the nation’s financial fortunes. With more Americans working again, congestion is building in 61 of the largest cities in the country, with job-infused cities like Boston and Los Angeles registering the biggest increases in traffic. That’s a good thing, right?

“Drivers are spending on average a full work week in traffic,” says Jim Bak, author of the INRIX Traffic Scorecard. “While these increases aren’t good news for drivers, it is good news for our economy because it tells us people are heading back to work, going out to spend money, businesses are shipping products.”

Yet as bad as road congestion is on this side of the Atlantic, only three U.S. cities cracked the list of 10 most traffic-jammed cities on the planet and – perhaps surprisingly – neither were notoriously the clogged corridors of New York, Boston or Washington D.C. Here’s where in the world INRIX found commuters wasting the most time with their hands on the wheel, staring the bumpers of the cars ahead of them:

1. Brussels, Belgium
2. Antwerp, Belgium
3. Los Angeles, Calif., USA
4. Milan, Italy
5. London, U.K.
6. Paris, France
7. Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
8. Rotterdam, Netherlands
9. Manchester, UK
10. San Francisco, Calif., USA

Insofar as the U.S. is concerned, commuters in the 10 most traffic-jammed cities were found to spend an average 42 hours a year sitting in traffic. What’s more, INRIX estimates that drivers in the U.S. burn 2.9 billion gallons of gas sitting in traffic, wasting more than $121 billion in time and fuel because of gridlock, which amounts to an average $800 per household.

Here’s INRIX’s list of the 10 U.S. cities having the most congested roads:

1. Los Angeles, Calif.
2. Honolulu, Hawaii
3. San Francisco, Calif.
4. Austin, Texas
5. New York, N.Y.
6. Bridgeport, Conn.
7. San Jose, Calif.
8. Seattle, Wash.
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Boston, Mass.

For those who are fortunate enough to be able to adjust their travel times, overall INRIX found Tuesdays from 8:00-9:00 AM to be the busiest morning commute hour overall, and Fridays between 5:00-6:00 PM the most crowded evening commute hour, where the average trip took 11 percent longer.

By the way, a 20-mile stretch of the Cross Bronx Expressway in New York was determined to be the most congested traffic corridor in the U.S., taking 54 minutes to traverse at an average speed of just 13 mph, representing a whopping delay of 41 minutes. Ouch.