Not surprisingly, big cities were at the bottom of the list. Washington D.C. had the longest commuting delays with drivers there spending an average of 82 hours a year in traffic. Washington D.C. was followed by Los Angeles (80 hours), San Francisco (78 hours), New York (74 hours) and San Jose (67 hours).
The study shows that traffic has gotten worse in Dayton in the last few decades. In 1990, the average delays in Dayton equaled to 17 hours a year for commuters. In 1984, commuters had 10 hours of travel delays.
The trend of longer commutes is not expected to change, at least nationally. The institute said that the average commute will increase by five hours annually by increased traffic alone.
The figure is measured by the total travel time above that needed to complete a trip at free-flow speeds.
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