I would like to see an international list because Lima has to be in the top ten. A city of over 5 million and only 3 freeways.
The thing is, those cities have other viable forms of transportation. You can walk, bike, bus, or sometimes even train it. So, while the car traffic may be bad, at least you have options. Houston gets bumped up significantly on the suck-o-meter for commuting simply because you pretty much have to drive. My 12 mile trip to work took 70 minutes via bus in the morning, and 90 minutes in the evening (sometimes up to 120). That's just sad, and I doubt many other cities can match that level of futility.
Is that what they're doing there? Wow. I take that stretch of 59 every day at rush hour, going from Greenway to Midtown. My thought/hope was that the cops were pulling over the assholes who try to cut corners by driving in the two left exit lanes (for the spur) and then darting back over (crossing the double line) at the last minute. They especially piss me off because they also slow down the flow in the spur exit lanes, where I am. Guess that would make too much sense for traffic cops, though.
This. No matter if it's morning or evening, the traffic is horrible heading towards downtown. It often comes to a standstill and everyday I see people on the verge of fighting/killing each other as people try to slide in from the left at the fork.
Yeah, the weird direction downtown faces can get confusing if you're new to it. No doubt about it. Once you get used to it, it's pretty easy to maneuver. If you know what you're doing, you can actually drive straight through downtown without stopping, even though the lights aren't timed correctly. Hint - it's all about the strategically timed turns. As soon as you think you're going to get a red light, turn. Repeat until you're on the freeway entrance. It's fun to make a game out of it. Especially late at night when there's no other cars to get in your way.
As someone said... everyone always thinks their city has the worst traffic. I'm surprised that Miami isn't in the top 10. Horrid traffic mixed with a number of people who should not even be allowed to operate a car or have licenses. Just bad(But from what I gather not Austin bad).
They do. I take that spur everyday and watch the cheaters get flagged over to the shoulder. I'm always impressed because the cops are there almost every single day for a couple of years, and yet they still find plenty of people cheating over to ticket. They must make a killing at that spot. They might also be grabbing people for expired stickers and whatnot, I don't know. But, I do appreciate them keeping the spur clear for me.
That's the worst part of Miami... well actually the worst part of Florida in general. All the old folks who drive. You know drivers are bad when there's a minimum speed limit posted on the highways.
The MoPac is a cluster as well. Having lived in Houston most of my life and now Austin, I can say that evening rush hour in Austin is worse. The freeways are just too small for the amount of people.
Considering the amount of people Houston has, that is amazing. They've done a pretty good job of having enough major roads to feed to the rest of the city. You have I10, 59, 288, 45, Beltway 8, 610, 290, Fort Bend Toll Road, Westpark Toll Road...am I missing any? As for Austin, they should put the the worst time as 5:30 a.m. to 5:15 a.m. cause it's bad almost all the time. I am so glad I only live on exit from my office, I just hop onto Mopac and pass by all the sitting ducks. Austin is among the fastest growing cities, they're in for an ugly future with this roadway system.
Exactly! Austin is just a fun city to live in Lol! I sort of do that mostly because I didn't want to stop, but now that it's a recommended tactic I'll definitely try it out. I haven't explored enough of downtown because of my confusion the first couple of times; I'm only really familiar with places fairly close to the metro line, but this should open it up more
A lot of people commute in and out of SF to work. We don't have 10-lane highways like in Houston and people here drive slow. There are no freeways that go across SF either so it's all local roads with stoplights. NYC is the same. Millions of people commute in and around the boroughs and they don't really have the infrastructure to support spikes in traffic.
Off-subject (sorry), but rep to anyone who helps! My commute is about to change. I'll be going from the 610 & San Felipe (Afton Oaks area) to 290 & the Beltway... what's the best route? This is opposite of normal traffic. I hear the commute isn't bad in the morning but at 5pm it can be brutal (heading back towards the Galleria). Any ideas? 290 to 610 and straight home? Beltway to I-10 to 610? Thanks in advance for the help.
I'd say beltway to I-10 to 610 is much better than 290 to 610 if you have an EZtag. You can hit some of the side streets (fairbanks runs from 290 to I-10, etc), but overall, I think BW8 to I-10 is the best way especially with the overhaul 290 is getting over the next few years. I-10 between the beltway and 610 is a nice 50 lane highway anyway.
We have BART, Caltrain, MUNI, etc. You're wasting time if you're driving into the city. As for NY, most of folks that live in places like Westchester take the train in.
Beltway to I-10-to 610 every single time, as long as you have an EZ Tag (which, if you live in Houston, you definitely should). 290 is absolute cluster**** in the evenings, and you WILL want to kill yourself and everyone around you by about the second week of that commute.
Houston, on the whole, isn't that bad, especially now that I-10 got a massive enema. There are bad spots, but even those are largely avoidable. North 45 has the toll. The greater Washington area (DC/No Va) is a nightmare. Abject nightmare. I've got dozens of close friends out that way, but I would not consider a move there even if it came with a good pay bump. I'm not throwing a quarter of my waking hours out the window and missing my child grow up because of a 2+ hr daily commute. Every major city has bad traffic somewhere, but if there are good places to live that sidestep the worst traffic, it's fine. If you've got a strong public transit system, more power to you.
funny thing...people from Dallas constantly complain about Houston traffic. Dallas is #20 on that list Houston is #24 I tell them Dallas traffic is worse..they usually don't believe me
