Philadelphia boasts two of America's worst, most time-wasting traffic bottlenecks, according to a report released Monday by the American Highway Users Alliance.
Can you guess which of Philly's traffic traps made the list?
The first one, coming in at No. 36 of "America's Top 50 Bottlenecks" (No. 1 being the worst), is I-76 at Route 1, between City Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard. There, according to the American Highway Users Alliance study, traffic backs up an average of an eighth of a mile, causing drivers an annual delay of a whopping 700,000 hours -- about 80 cumulative years of wasted time. The value of that time lost, according to the Alliance, is $16 million, with 263,120 gallons of fuel wasted annually waiting in that traffic jam.
Another infamous I-76 clog also landed on the list -- the interchange between the Vine Street Expressway and I-76 by the western edge of Center City is No. 47. At that bottleneck, the Alliance's study found, traffic backs up an average of a third of a mile, costing drivers 300,000 hours, $6 million and 112,580 gallons of fuel annually.
But it turns out Philly doesn't have it so bad: The worst bottleneck in the country, according to the list, is on I-90 between Roosevelt Road and Nagle Avenue in Chicago, where traffic backs up a horrific 12 miles, delaying drivers 16.9 million hours a year and costing $418 million.
The Lincoln Tunnel between New York and New Jersey landed at No. 8 on the list, with an average queue of 2.6 miles, costing drivers 3.4 million hours. Los Angleans have a slow-go, too, with six of the top seven worst bottlenecks landing on their highways.
What's the worst traffic jam you've ever been stuck in?
