Los Angeles drivers spend almost 4 days per year sitting in traffic

Los Angeles is a notoriously traffic-clogged, smog-ridden place to live. But exactly how bad is the city's congestion problem? By a sizable margin it's the worst in the U.S., with average drivers wasting 90 hours per year idling in traffic, according to a new report from GPS company Tom Tom.

Put another way, L.A. drivers with half-hour commutes spend what amounts to 3.75 days-worth of time sitting in bumper-to-bumper gridlock every year. At least that's better than Rio de Janeiro — Tom Tom's most congested American city — where drivers waste 114 hours per year stuck in traffic.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up