Traveling the open road can be a peaceful journey—or a gridlocked nightmare.
And the chances of being stuck in traffic misery go up when driving through the nation's capital, according to a new report from ConsumerAffairs, a consumer review platform. That's because when it comes to driving in Washington, D.C., the city experienced average commute times of more than 33 minutes, the longest in the country.
In fact, traffic typically lasts more than 6.5 hours on average weekdays in the capital. But the good news is driving in Washington, D.C. is relatively safe with less than six fatal crashes reported per 100,000 residents.
Road warriors won't be surprised Los Angeles ranked No. 2 on the list of cities with the worst traffic. Drivers there experienced an average daily commute of more than 30 minutes with the most weekday congestion, which averages nearly eight hours.
Drivers in Miami, which ranked third on the list, also face heavy traffic with a daily commute of just over 29 minutes. That was followed by San Francisco (with a commute of more than 32 minutes) and Atlanta (with a commute of more than 31 minutes) to round out the top five.
"The link between economic activity and traffic appears to hold true for our ranking: The cities with the worst traffic in America are among the cities with the highest economic output," according to the report.
Drivers looking to breeze through the fast lane should consider planning a commute in Rochester, New York, which has the least traffic of any major city, according to the report. In fact, an average commute in Rochester will set you back just over 21 minutes.
Rochester was followed by Salt Lake City, Utah; Cleveland, Ohio; Hartford, Connecticut; and St. Louis, Missouri.
To compile the data, ConsumerAffairs looked at commute times, traffic duration, and car crash rates across the 50 most populous metropolitan areas in the United States.
The traffic study comes as a record number of Americans are traveling by car this summer. More than 61 million Americans were projected to travel by car over the recent Fourth of July holiday weekend, an increase of more than 1 million compared to 2024.
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