It’s not Los Angeles or Mexico City: This is the city with the worst traffic congestion in the world
Two U.S. cities are in the top three, but America has relinquished first place in an annual study by transportation analysts Inrix.
The U.S. is no longer home to the world’s most congested city: this unwanted title is now in the possession of the Turkish city Istanbul.
That’s according to the most recent data compiled by Inrix, a transportation analytics firm that releases a major annual report on road traffic.
Two U.S. cities on congestion podium
Published earlier this year, Inrix’s Global Traffic Scorecard for 2024 saw New York City relinquish its status as the planet’s most gridlocked city, dropping into second. Istanbul rose to the summit after placing sixth in 2023.
Inrix bases its ranking on factors such as the average number of hours that vehicles spend sitting in traffic jams over the course of the year, and the estimated financial cost to each driver of this lost time.
“Total time lost is the difference in travel times experienced during the peak periods compared to free-flow conditions on a per driver basis,” Inrix says of its methodology. “In other words, it is the difference between driving during commute hours versus driving at night with little traffic."
Istanbul totalled 105 hours per driver per year in 2024, while New York and another U.S. city, Chicago, both clocked in at 102 hours. In New York and Chicago, these delays were estimated to have cost just over $1,800 per driver in lost productivity.
🚨 JUST RELEASED: INRIX 2024 Global Traffic Scorecard 🚨
— INRIX ® (@INRIX) January 6, 2025
INRIX ranks Istanbul as the most congested city in the world, followed closely by New York City and Chicago.
Ten U.S. cities made the Top 25 worst congested cities in the world as more employees returned to the office…
The world’s most congested cities:
- Istanbul - 105 hrs per driver
- New York City - 102 hrs per driver
- Chicago - 102 hrs per driver
- Mexico City - 97 hrs per driver
- London - 101 hrs per driver
New York traffic drops amid new initiative
Since being named 2024’s second-most congested city, New York has reported major reductions in traffic delays, following the introduction of a congestion pricing system.
Since January, drivers have been charged $9 to enter what is known as the Congestion Relief Zone, an area that covers Manhattan’s central business district.
In a statement in July, New York Governor Kathy Hochul revealed that 67,000 fewer vehicles are now entering the Congestion Relief Zone each day, resulting in over 10 million fewer vehicles in the area across the scheme’s first six months.
Governor Hochul also noted that traffic delays have gone down by 9% across the entirety of New York’s metropolitan region, while ridership on the city’s subway and bus networks is up by 7% and 12%, respectively.
“Six months in, it’s clear: congestion pricing has been a huge success, making life in New York better,” she said.
New York has implemented its congestion pricing system, which is the first of its kind in the U.S., despite attempts by Donald Trump’s administration to stop it.
In February, the month after President Trump took office, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy informed Governor Hochul that the federal government was revoking its approval of the Congestion Relief Zone.
In May, however, a federal judge issued an injunction that temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to eliminate the city’s anti-congestion program.
The federal government cannot withhold “federal funds, approvals, or authorizations from New York State or local agencies to enforce compliance”, Judge Lewis Liman ruled, per ABC News.
Will Chicago follow NYC’s lead?
In Chicago, meanwhile, Mayor Brandon Johnson has said a congestion-pricing scheme is something the Illinois city “should explore”. “I think being able to have robust conversations about how we respond to congestion […], I’m all for that conversation,” Johnson told a January interview with Block Club Chicago.
Chicago already operates a congestion tax that charges users of ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft an additional fee if they enter the city’s central business district.
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