The Bay Area's Worst Traffic Jams

Bay Bridge, you stink. But I-280 near Los Altos, we have our eyes on you, too.

The San Jose Mercury News's annual list of the Bay Area's 12 worst traffic jams have some familiar faces, with the pileup before the toll plaza at the Bay Bridge and the I-680/I-580 interchange drawing the predictable ire.

But there are also some traffic improvements to laud, the newspaper reported.

The area's improved economy is putting people back to work and back onto the roads -- and clogging them, the newspaper reported. One commuter reported that her nine-mile drive in San Jose -- from the 101-85 junction to Highway 17 -- "has doubled in time, sometimes tripled," the newspaper reported.

After the Bay Bridge, I-280 south from Los Altos to San Jose at Highway 85, Highway 101 through Gilroy and Morgan Hill, and Highway 101 from Palo Alto to Mountain View are the area's toughest stretches, the newspaper reported.

The best-improved roadways are the interchange at Tully Road and Highway 101 in San Jose, the widened Almaden Expressway near Highway 85, and the toll lanes at 237-880 north of San Jose near Milpitas, the newspaper reported.