New York is the most congested city in the world, with the average motorist losing 101 hours to traffic last year in what amounts to an estimated $9.1 billion blow to the region’s economy, according to the 2023 Global Traffic Scorecard from the transportation analytics firm Inrix.
The five boroughs beat out Mexico City, London, Paris and 1,000 other cities to claim the dubious title for a second year in a row. New York’s ranking comes on the heels of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s indefinite pause on congestion pricing, which transit officials estimated would reduce traffic in the busiest parts of Manhattan by some 17% — the equivalent to taking 153,000 cars off the road.
Congestion is greater in the New York metro region than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Inrix. Indeed, the firm found that car trips to downtown Manhattan jumped by 13% in 2023 compared with just the previous year. The bump in traffic cost individual drivers an estimated $1,700 in lost time, Inrix found.
“Traffic congestion is both a bane and a barometer of economic health; it symbolizes bustling activity yet simultaneously hampers it,” Bob Pishue, a transportation analyst at Inrix, said in a statement. “Reflecting on 2023 and early 2024, the surge in traffic congestion in urban areas indicated a revival of economic hubbub post-COVID, but it also led to billions of dollars in lost time for drivers.”
Inrix ranks cities based on commuting distances and delays relative to population and calculates economic losses based on hourly values of time — $17.45 per hour in the U.S. — which is based on 2016 U.S. Federal Highway Administration guidance on valuation for travel time for economic analysis, adjusted for inflation.
The scorecard also highlighted how the pandemic-induced shift in work schedules has led 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to become “the new ‘9-to-5’.” Compared to 2019, the flux in work patterns now means that motorists take nearly as many trips at noon as they do at 5 p.m.
“The continuation of hybrid and remote work,” Pishue added, “is creating new travel peaks from what we’ve seen previously.”