Bay Area Commuters Waste 78 Hours a Year Stuck in Traffic: Study

Traffic congestion nationally reached a new peak last year and is greater than ever before, according to a report by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and INRIX Inc. Their analysis is based on federal data on the number of cars on the road and on traffic speed data collected by INRIX on 1.3 million miles of urban streets and highways.

Commuters in Washington, D.C., suffer the most, losing an average of 82 hours a year to rush-hour slowdowns, a new study finds. Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York come next on the list of urban areas with the longest delays.

The following are urban areas ranked by the average annual extra hours commuters spend in their cars due to delay, together with the cost in lost time and fuel.

Washington, D.C.-Virginia-Maryland, 82 hours, $1,834
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, 80 hours, $1,711
San Francisco-Oakland, 78 hours, $1,675
New York-Newark, New Jersey-Connecticut, 74 hours, $1,739
San Jose, California, 67 hours, $1,422
Boston-New Hampshire-Rhode Island, 64 hours, $1,388
Seattle, 63 hours, $1,491
Chicago-Indiana, 61 hours, $1,445
Houston, 61 hours, $1,490
Riverside-San Bernardino, California, 59 hours, $1,316
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, 53 hours, $1,185
Atlanta, 52 hours,$1,130
Detroit, 52 hours, $1,183
Miami, 52 hours, $1,169
Austin, Texas, 52 hours, $1,159
Portland, Oregon, 52 hours, $1,273
Phoenix-Mesa, 51 hours, $1,201
Honolulu, 50 hours, $1,125
Bridgeport-Stamford, Connecticut, 49 hours, $1,174
Denver-Aurora, 49 hours, $1,101
Oklahoma City, 49 hours, $1,110
Philadelphia, 48 hours, $1,112
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 47 hours, $1,262
Tucson, Arizona, 47 hours, $1,128
Baltimore, 47 hours, $1,115
Minneapolis-St. Paul, 47 hours, $1,035

Cities with fast-growing economies and the most job growth are the most plagued by traffic. Other factors: Urban populations are increasing and lower fuel prices are making driving less expensive, so more people are taking to city roads.

Congestion increased in 61 of the nation's 101 largest cities from 2012 to 2013, the data showed. The following year, nearly all cities - 95 out of 101 - experienced greater congestion.

The national average time that commuters wasted stuck in traffic last year was 42 hours, about the same as in 2007 and more than twice the delay in 1982, when the transportation institute first began assessing urban mobility. But because there are so many more commuters today and far more congestion in off-peak hours, total delay across the country has increased over 2007.