The way things are going, experts say it won’t be long before the Big Apple edges out the City of Angels for the distinction of being the gridlock capital of America.
According to a new report on highway travel, the New York-New Jersey metro area is the second most congested in the nation.
The third annual INRIX National Traffic Scorecard ranked the 11.3 mile stretch of the westbound Cross Bronx Expressway to the George Washington Bridge as the worst bottleneck in the country.
An average speed of 11.3 mph was registered on the highway during heavy traffic.
“It grows from about 3 o’clock in the afternoon on to the point where it becomes standstill a lot of times,” a teacher told 1010 WINS’ John Montone.
A city bus driver said it appears more and more people are driving. “The highway’s just not moving, there are just too many cars around here,” he said. “It’s like everybody’s getting cars.”
A livery cab driver said he spends much of his time stuck at the intersection where the Cross Bronx Expressway meets the Bronx River Parkway. “Sometimes it takes you a half hour to an hour to get through,” he said.
The eastbound Long Island Expressway near Maurice Avenue in Queens was deemed the second-worst traffic corridor in New York City.
INRIX, which gathers traffic information using data from vehicles equipped with GPS devices, found that despite only modest employment gains last year, drivers are experiencing a 10 percent increase in travel times on average.
It says things will get worse when the millions of jobs lost during the recession return to the nation’s cities, with a drop in the unemployment rate to 7 percent equating to 9 million more daily work trips.
In general, the afternoon rush hour is worse than the morning commute across the country.
The report also found that Friday, between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., is the most congested hour of the week.
Most Congested Cities:
1. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana
2. N.Y.-Long Island-N.J.-Pa.
3. Chicago-Naperville-Joliet
4. D.C.-Md.-Northern Va.
5. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
6. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont
7. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown
8. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy-N.H.
9. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington
10. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue
{CBSNewYork/AP/Matzav.com Newscenter}
