CHICAGO — Chicago is the world’s fifth-most congested city, and its streets are about 18 percent more clogged compared to the year before the pandemic, according to a new “traffic scorecard.”
The typical Chicago-area driver lost 96 hours in traffic congestion last year, according to the latest Global Traffic Scorecard created by transportation data company Inrix. The study, which analyzed travel patterns in about 950 cities worldwide, defines “lost” hours as time spent in traffic “during peak commute periods compared to off-peak conditions.”
Ranking ahead of Chicago for worst gridlock were New York City, Mexico City, London and Paris, according to the study.
Evening rush hours on the Dan Ryan and Stevenson expressways were among the most congested commutes in the United States last year, the study also found.
If a driver took the Dan Ryan from the Jane Byrne Interchange to Interstate 57 every day at 4 p.m., they lost 66 hours in traffic compared to off-peak periods. That makes it the 10th-busiest corridor in the nation, according to the report.
The evening drive on the Stevenson from the Dan Ryan to Cicero Avenue is similarly congested. Daily drivers on that commute lost 64 hours in traffic, making it the 12th-busiest corridor in the United States, the study found.
Chicagoans lost nine more hours to traffic congestion last year compared to 2022, according to the study. That increase came even as the city saw a small decrease in trips Downtown over that time.
Major downtown areas in the United States typically saw more trips between 2022 and 2023. New Yorkers made 13 percent more trips downtown, while cities like Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia and several others saw increases of 3-7 percent.
To read the full 2023 traffic scorecard, click here.
Residents across the city, traveling in all directions, told Block Club traffic in 2023 was the worst they’d ever seen amid construction on four major roadways — the Kennedy and Stevenson expressways, Interstate 57 and DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
Construction on the Jane Byrne Interchange tangled traffic in the city’s core for nearly a decade. Its completion in late 2022 would cut congestion in half, state officials said at the time — but Chicago-area drivers weren’t able to celebrate for too long. Road work north of the interchange on the Kennedy Expressway began soon after, and it will continue through at least next year.
Roadway changes near the Obama Presidential Center and construction elsewhere along South DuSable Lake Shore Drive has caused delays for South Side commuters in recent years. The Obama Center-related work is expected to continue through next year and beyond.
Residents have pushed for improved transit and cycling networks that would reduce traffic congestion and commuters’ reliance on cars.
Fourteen alderpeople joined transit advocates this month in asking the state to “halt” its massive project to redesign DuSable Lake Shore Drive. The alderpeople called for existing proposals to be scrapped in favor of plans that prioritize public transit, like bus-only lanes or a light rail system, along the lakefront.
CTA riders have also demanded improved service along existing routes as the agency struggles with long wait times, deteriorating conditions, security issues and “ghost” trains and buses.
Chicagoans have more than doubled their bike trips in the past five years, with some of the biggest increases coming in South Side neighborhoods, according to recent estimates. Advocates have called on the city to continue filling gaps in the city’s bike grid to continue that trend.
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