A new report has found that Boston drivers sat in some of the world’s worst traffic in 2022.
Drivers in only three other cities — London, Chicago and Paris — lost more time last year in traffic congestion than Boston’s famously irritable and assertive motorists, according to the report from transportation analysis company INRIX.
Whether the time was spent backed up in a detour around the Sumner Tunnel restoration project or jammed between fellow commuters on the Zakim Bridge, the average Boston driver lost 134 hours of their year from traffic congestion, INRIX, a Washington state company, found. Comparably, the typical American lost 51 hours of the year in traffic.
Traffic delays jumped in the past year from pandemic-related dips in 2020 and 2021 — which occurred as droves of workers left the office and switched to remote or hybrid work schedules. As those workers steadily crept back to their in-person work accommodations in 2022, some cities saw their gridlock drastically increase.
The 134 hours that the average Boston driver lost in congested traffic was a 72% jump from 2021, INRIX reported. But in line with patterns in some other Northeast cities — including New York City, Philadelphia and Hartford — hours spent in Boston traffic remained below pre-COVID-19 levels recorded in 2019, the report said.
INRIX calculated the volume of traffic congestion in major cities using speed and traffic-flow data for each area’s busiest commuting corridors. The hours lost to traffic were calculated by comparing the time it takes to drive those routes in traffic with the time it would take in “free-flow conditions,” for example, when there are few drivers on the road at night.
The world’s leading congestion in London — which earned top marks in INRIX’s report for a second straight year — cost drivers in the British capital 156 hours last year. Chicago drivers trailed closely, losing 155 hours. Paris drivers narrowly led Boston, with 138 hours lost.