Traffic is a headache for many drivers in America. Depending on where you live, you might see more congestion, a new analysis from INRIX shows.
Chicago, Illinois tops the list of U.S. cities with the worst traffic congestion, according to INRIX. On average, Chicagoans lost 112 hours to traffic — which cost the typical driver $2,063 in lost time. That adds up to $7.5 billion for the whole city.
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Globally, Istanbul, Turkey is the most congested urban area — a title it’s held for two years now. Traffic delays cost people over 118 hours in the city.
Overall in the U.S., drivers lost an average of 49 hours and $894 to traffic congestion in 2025, INRIX wrote. That’s six hours more than 2024.
Another report from Texas A&M Transportation Institute published earlier this year found that the average commuter spends 63 hours stuck in traffic annually — the most since 1982.
“The numbers show more traffic than we’ve ever seen, but also a different kind of traffic,” David Schrank, a senior research scientist at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and lead author of its study, said. “Hybrid work capabilities, online shopping and other changes in our daily lives have reshaped when and where congestion happens. This can create more unpredictability and make travel harder to plan.”
Still, even as they might rank high in congestion compared to other areas, some places did see decreases in traffic delays, including New York City, Los Angeles and Toronto. In addition, traffic fatalities in the U.S., U.K. and Germany are at or below pre-COVID-19 levels — though INRIX noted it took until the first half of 2025 for these to solidify.
Cities with worst traffic
So which cities have the worst traffic in the world? The top ten are, per INRIX:
- Istanbul
- Mexico City
- Chicago
- New York City
- Philadelphia
- Cape Town
- London
- Paris
- Jakarta
- Los Angeles
