I'm a city guy. I like living where the action is so that usually means I have to deal with traffic. I have lived all over northern NJ, NYC, Pittsburgh, and now Charlotte. NYC traffic is an animal all it's own but as long as you don't leave Manhattan it still moves. Same for Pittsburgh. I always lived in the downtown area so I didn't have to venture out of the city very often. As long as you didnt need to go over a bridge or through a tunnel traffic was very managable. You can get across the downtown area in 12-15 min. Charlotte is similar being a small big City. I don't have many issues getting around the city even in rush hour. Leaving the city is a whole other story. Of all the places I have traveled LA and Atlanta had to be the worst. I was in Atlanta for the NRA convention and got there 3 days in advance. The traffic was horrendous even in the city. One day it took me 1.5 hours to go 7 miles. A kid on a tricycle could have gotten there faster. LA is very frustrating too. Bumper to bumper is an undestatement. It's funny though because in LA sometimes you will be bumper to bumper but moving at 40 miles an hour.

Who do you guys think has the worst traffic?

Houston has its monents.

For it's smaller size, Tampa is a shit show.

I lived in Atlanta for a short while and it could be pretty bad. I would not say it is one of the top 5 though. Traveled thru Chicago quite a few times and would think that was one of the top ones. Recently went thru St.Louis, Tulsa, Ok city, Alb. N.M., all not too bad, mostly bypasses.

All I will say is that unless someone, like you, has had actual experience driving in many different cities, they don’t know what traffic is worse than others. In the late 1980s after I moved to the Denver area from Washington, DC, someone remarked about how bad Denver traffic was. I literally burst out laughing at the comparison. About a year ago I spent several weeks in the DC area again and could only think, “Yup, we’re lucky in Colorado.”

I haven’t been there in decades, but of all the US places I’ve driven, Boston may not have had the worst traffic, but it definitely had the craziest drivers; made me think of driving in a third world country.

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Originally posted by tigereye313:
Houston has its monents.

I HATE driving through Dallas (though, most of Texas is nice).

Virginia/DC area - forget it. I will never drive there. People are simply suicidal.

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I HATE driving through Dallas (though, most of Texas is nice).

Virginia/DC area - forget it. I will never drive there. People are simply suicidal.

I've done lots of driving in both places. You have to be brave... but neither is as bad as San Francisco. I haven't driven in LA but around San Francisco it's just nuts.

I've lived in LA, Dallas, and Houston - LA is worse

I've worked on extended trips in NYC and Washington DC, but it's hard to say which is worse.

Boston and Washington DC roads both seem to have started off as a deer trail then horse trail then horse & buggy trail then a road. Weird intersections and nothing laid out in a grid. Add in traffic jams while underground in tunnels and I vote Boston to be worse.

Chicago is horrendous.

I add 100 miles to my trip every time I head east by going around Chicago, but it's still about an hour or 2 faster (depending on time of day) than going through Chicago.

It's bad from Gary, IN, all the way out the North side of Chicago on I90.

NYC traffic, the few times I've been there (drove there for a week a couple times when I lived in NY) didn't seem as bad. It still moved.

Atlanta traffic also moved every time I Was down there (probably a dozen times for a week each - worked for a company that had an office there).

Milwaukee and Madison traffic is nothing, same with MSP.

Driving in Charlotte traffic never seemed too bad. Miami also didn't seem that horrible when I was there for a week last summer.


I think DC and surrounding areas would get my vote for worst.

The DC area rush hours are pretty bad on the Virginia side. People commuting from 60 miles away to the south (Fredricksburg) and from 50 miles away to the west (Leesburg). Rush hour can be from about 6am-9am and 3pm-7pm, depending on where you are going.

I'm west of Charlotte, and I know the interstate and 2 lane country roads can get pretty backed up. On Friday at 5pm, I passed a 1.5 mile line of cars waiting to reach a T-intersection, and there was no accident. Luckily I was going the opposite way.

And, if there's an accident on the interstate, people bail off onto the country roads and then it's gridlock.

Generally, driving around the Charlotte area is a pleasure compared to DC/NOVA.

I forgot about DC! It's horrendous as well. The worst part is that as soon as you leave D.C. And the traffic opens up in Virginia you instinctively start speeding then get pulled over in VA and their assinine speeding laws you end up with a criminal offense if you drive 10 over lol.

I thought LA traffic was pretty bad until I went to Cairo where not only are there more vehicles on crummier roads, but it is considered cowardly to use your brakes and horns are used instead. It illustrated in a dramatic way how Islam (submission to the will of God) has such appeal to these hapless souls.

Several years ago, I spent time in Istanbul. It took longer to get from the airport to my hotel than it did to travel from London to Istanbul! Traffic was better than it had been in Cairo only because due to crowding, traffic moved more slowly.

Then I moved here, near Austin!

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Chicago is horrendous.

You can't get anywhere without paying a toll... but that's not even the worst of it. Most of them don't take cash, they just take your picture. Later, you get a bill in the mail. So if you are from out of town and don't have an I-Pass they really stick it to you.

NOVA/Washington DC is the worst I have driven in. I used to do it daily back in '99/'00 before I went active duty. My brothers and uncles still do it daily and leave their homes at about 4-430 AM to be at work by 7 AM. Sometimes they get lucky and beat the traffic before an accident occurs but once it does, there is not much movement. Same situation on the way back home too. Sometimes they won't make it home before 9 PM and this is after getting off work at 5 PM, so traffic is even more fucked in the afternoon. Gotta correct mikeyspizza though, people commute from much further away than he put. I know several people that drive up from Richmond (and some further south) and come from as far west as Moorefield, WV with lots coming from Winchester and surrounding areas. It can get hectic to say the least.

Not a state, but still part of the U.S.A. -- I lived / worked in the San Juan PR area for a number of years. Traffic was abominable during commuting hours.

There was a story that a major insurance company was going to open a regional center in the San Juan area. A high level manager was inspecting some prospective office space in a high rise building. He looked down at the street, observed the traffic, and declared that the company would not be doing any insurance business in Puerto Rico.

King County, Washington State. It's planned congestion without any mass transit backup.

I've lived in the Washington, DC area for several decades now, and it seems DC and LA are constantly vying for the title of worst traffic in the USA.

However, nothing compares to traffic in either Mexico City or Bangkok, Thailand. I swear, in Mexico city, red lights are considered a suggestion and not an order!

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Originally posted by mutedblade:
NOVA/Washington DC is the worst I have driven in. I used to do it daily back in '99/'00 before I went active duty. My brothers and uncles still do it daily and leave their homes at about 4-430 AM to be at work by 7 AM. Sometimes they get lucky and beat the traffic before an accident occurs but once it does, there is not much movement. Same situation on the way back home too. Sometimes they won't make it home before 9 PM and this is after getting off work at 5 PM, so traffic is even more fucked in the afternoon. Gotta correct mikeyspizza though, people commute from much further away than he put. I know several people that drive up from Richmond (and some further south) and come from as far west as Moorefield, WV with lots coming from Winchester and surrounding areas. It can get hectic to say the least.

I have very little problems getting around NoVA. Getting in/out of city can be a bitch, especially if you can't carpool (HOV). Leave 5 minutes late and it can add an hour to you drive.

Of all places I hate is the American Legion bridge and 270/495 in MD. That is the single worst bridge I've ever crossed. Plus once you leave VA and enter MD the roads go from pristine to 3rd world country.

They installed our first traffic light a few years ago at Westlake and the traffic has been unbearable ever since.
We get 4 or 5 cars deep sometimes!!

Oh the horror....

Seriously, we could pretty much live anywhere we want and even Trump doesn't have enough money to pay me to live in some of these traffic nightmares!

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Originally posted by smlsig:
They installed our first traffic light a few years ago at Westlake and the traffic has been unbearable ever since.
We get 4 or 5 cars deep sometimes!!

Oh the horror....

Seriously, we could pretty much live anywhere we want and even Trump doesn't have enough money to pay me to live in some of these traffic nightmares!

If I could live anywhere I wanted it would probably be on Smith Mountain Lake.