traffic jam.jpg (Photo : Reuters )
Los Angeles, California beats New York City in having the worst traffic during rush hour in the United States and in the worldwide scale.
Most people imagine traffic during rush hour in the US with yellow cab filling up every nook and cranny of New York City. Apparently, this is light compared to the congested traffic in the highways and streets of Los Angeles.
CNN cited GPS maker TomTom conducts a study every year ranking 200 cities around the globe. The TomTom Traffic Index 2015 is based on the actual and real time data from automobiles driving across each city's entire road on the city's road. The index criteria for coming up with the list is knoswing how long it would take to complete 30 minute-drive without traffic in comparison during rush hour.
Surprisingly, Los Angeles ranked first in the US and tenth in the worldwide level. Meanwhile, New York City ranked fourth in the US and 62nd globally. In LA, the average 30-minute drive will take around 54 minutes during evening rush hour. This leads to 92 hours of wasted time sitting in traffic annually. Ranking first is Istanbul as the city with the worst traffic during rush hour.
"It's not good for employers either because, of course, the productivity goes down, people are already exhausted from white-knuckled commuting into work, or they're late. Nobody's happy about that and everyone's less productive," said Nick Cohn, TomTom head of Global Traffic Research cited by ABC.
While most people think of rush hour traffic as a nuisance, it could also mean that more people are working in the city causing the traffic in peak hours. There are a myriad of ways to mitigate the problems in traffic like putting up bike lanes and re-timing signals.
