How many hours per year do you spend stuck in traffic?

We’ve all been there: Hoping to get to work on time! Hoping to get home to dinner! Hoping we don’t run out of gas before the next exit.

For many commuters, it’s a daily ritual - the all American traffic jam.

I personally believe this phenomenon was invented in Boston. After all, the Pilgrims did land in Massachusetts first. But, Boston has fallen behind the times and sadly can only claim a ranking of 12th in the nation among the worst commuting metropolitan areas in recent times.

The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), the largest university-affiliated transportation research agency in the United States -- affiliated with Texas A & M-- has computed the annual hours of delay in traffic per traveler for 439 urban areas nationwide.

Here are TTI’s 2007 results (the most recent year available) for the largest urban areas:

Metropolitan Area	Hours of Delay Per Traveler Per Year
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana CA	70
Washington DC-VA-MD	62
Atlanta GA	57
Houston TX	56
San Francisco-Oakland CA	55
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington TX	53
Detroit MI	52
Miami FL	47
New York-Newark NY-NJ-CT	44
Phoenix AZ	44
Seattle WA	43
Boston MA-NH-RI	43
Chicago IL-IN	41
Philadelphia PA-NJ-DE-MD	38

For more information on the Texas Transportation Institute study, visit:
http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/congestion_data/national_congestion_ta...

If you want to keep an eye on traffic trends, check out Forbes.com which frequently covers the traffic beat. A recent article in Forbes.com takes a look at the best and the worst commutes. It too is based on 2007 statistics. http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/12/best-worst-commutes-lifestyle-mass...

Another Forbes.com article reveals that while the economy was putting on the brakes in 2008, and traffic delays actually seemed to ease a bit, the trend this year, along with the economy, is back upwards. I never thought I’d be happy to hear about an upward trend in traffic congestion, but times change.

http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/22/traffic-intersections-congestion-l...

Although Boston, MA isn’t listed in the top 3 traffic jam offenders, I personally believe it should be and couldn’t resist the urge to point out that Boston, after its $14 billion Big Dig to improve traffic flow, really hasn’t made much progress in alleviating the traffic into and around the perimeter of the city.

The real prizes for traffic jams in Boston go to Routes 93 North/South into and out of the city, Route 95 around the perimeter, and Route 3 South of Boston.

My most recent worst Boston commute, was two winters ago, when my normal 1 ½ hour commute on Route 95 (that I can do in 30 minutes during non-rush hours) took six full hours. We had a little snow, a little fog and a lot of panicky drivers, who all left work at noon.

Up until that time, my worst rush-hour commute took 3 hours to go half that distance – 20 miles (I lived closer to work then.) I was so frustrated that winter night, I ate a whole box of chocolates on the way home.

Share with us your commuting nightmares! Let’s see who really has had the worst commute! There’s a box of chocolates waiting for the best story.