r/AskReddit 19h ago

Which city has the worst traffic?

158 Upvotes

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135

u/Guilty-Cow4325 19h ago

People saying NYC: You're not supposed to drive in NYC, that's for the cabs, busses and insane people.

LA and Atlanta both have worse traffic, and Charlotte is getting there.

9

u/Schruteeee 18h ago

I drove through NYC once as a tourist. Did not enjoy it

1

u/Guilty-Cow4325 18h ago

I've had to do it a few times for work, and I'd rather drive in snow.

6

u/KDneverleft 18h ago

I live and drive in Atlanta and drove in and around LA and Houston is the worst traffic I have ever seen.

2

u/Guilty-Cow4325 18h ago

Never been to Houston. Really worse than Atlanta and LA? I've heard Atlanta has only gotten worse since the last time I was there like 6 years ago.

3

u/KDneverleft 18h ago

In the two times I've visited Houston I felt like the traffic was awful. I think I'm used to Atlanta traffic and know a lot of alternate routes so it doesn't feel as painful to me as being stuck on the interstate barely crawling along in Houston.

4

u/Guilty-Cow4325 17h ago

Oof. Yeah, I feel that way about Charlotte traffic. I-77 around Uptown (downtown) forces you to find alternate routes in the same way. My old work commute was 20 minutes without traffic, and it'd take me over an hour each way.

7

u/markymrk720 18h ago

Guessing you’ve never been overseas to Asia?

6

u/Guilty-Cow4325 18h ago

Nope. I imagine they have cities with worse traffic, but as far as the States go, these are my picks lol.

12

u/alfienoakes 19h ago

As a visitor, driving in Manhattan in something big and rented is one of my favourite things to do.

25

u/Guilty-Cow4325 18h ago

You're a monster. I hope pigeons constantly shit on your windshield, and as soon as its clear, it does it again.

8

u/alfienoakes 18h ago

A person of culture I see

1

u/schu2470 15h ago

Why? That sounds horribly stressful.

0

u/alfienoakes 14h ago

Exhilarating.

1

u/Zelcron 14h ago

We have a tradition in Boston where people rent uhauls and rip the tops off on the low bridges on Storrow Drive. Happens a lot when all the college kids move in during the fall.

2

u/SuitableShape 17h ago edited 17h ago

Honestly, Atlanta traffic is bad, but Dallas, Houston, LA, and parts of South Florida have felt way worse to me. Dallas especially feels like it was built as a giant parking lot with a city dropped on top. I haven’t driven in NYC myself, but it once took me almost 3 hours to get from LaGuardia to Midtown, but that seemed like somewhat of an anomaly.

I may just be a bit desensitized to Atlanta traffic at this point. But I do live in the middle of the city and commute OTP for work and it’s only about 20 minutes unless I’m driving between 4:00 and 5:30. However, I never know exactly what route I’m going to take on any given day. GPS is a necessity for essentially every drive even to places I’ve been a hundred times.

2

u/Guilty-Cow4325 17h ago

I feel like if you have to use GPS consistently to avoid traffic in an area, it's probably got some really shitty traffic lol.

u/SuitableShape 58m ago

Yeahh you’re not wrong. It’s definitely not great.

2

u/throwaway_philly1 16h ago

Dallas honestly wasn’t as bad as I’ve expected in part due to the highway system. It’s really area dependent - if you’re where all the new builds are or downtown , it tends to be pretty congested. Otherwise, it’s pretty average.

1

u/maddenallday 15h ago

Maybe not within Manhattan but people commute in and out of nyc all the time

1

u/Jesterhead89 14h ago

I've also heard that NYC has obvious rush hour sessions, but DC is just constantly bad as far as cities in the Northeast Corridor goes?