The annual Global Traffic Scorecard was released yesterday by INIX and it Chicago did not look good. According to the study’s findings, Chicago was tied with New York as the worst in the U.S. for traffic congestion and was only behind Hong Kong globally.
INRIX, a transportation data and analytics firm, showed that Chicago and New York commuters lost an average of 102 hours sitting in traffic last year. Los Angeles ranked third with 88 hours lost.
The average speed of a downtown Chicago commute was approximately 14 mph, tied for the third-slowest in the country. INRIX calculated that the slow commute for drivers in Chicago costs on average about $1,826 per year. The analysis attributed the increases to a return to in-person work, and large nighttime trip increases on the weekends as cities have tried to entice employees and visitors back to enjoy their downtown life.
I agree with INIX’s reasoning but another factor, at least for those who drive downtown on the I-90/94 Kennedy expressway, is the ongoing construction. The express lanes going north and south have been out of commission for most of the year and as I wrote last month, they will not be open until the end of January. Hopefully, once the Kennedy construction is completed and the express lanes are open, then commute times will ease up a bit.
If you or a loved one have been seriously injured in a Chicago car crash or Chicago truck accident, then call the Chicago injury attorneys at the Bryant Law Group, LLC. for a free legal consultation at 312-614-1076 or go to the firm’s website at www.blgchicago.com.