Chicago has retaken the unwanted title of Worst Traffic in the Nation.
The Midwest’s largest city usually places near the top of data firm Inrix’s annual Global Traffic Scorecards.
Last year, Chicago tied with New York City for the number-one spot in the US. But Chicago is alone at the top nationally again, thanks in part to NYC implementing a congestion surcharge in Manhattan earlier this year.
Chicago placed second worst in the world behind only Istanbul. The report said traffic on average is worsening across the globe.
“As the demand for vehicular travel continues to grow faster than the supply of roadway[s], traffic congestion and delay[s] tend to grow,” the authors wrote in the report.
Chicago drivers saw a 10% increase in 2025 in the average time wasted this year in peak traffic, according to the report.
Drivers here wasted an average of 112 hours this year in peak traffic, over the time they would have spent in normal traffic. The lost time cost the average driver $2,063 — and the city as a whole $7.5 billion — according to the report.
The nation’s other most congested cities were New York City (102 hours), Philadelphia (101 hours), Los Angeles (87 hours) and Boston (83 hours). Traffic was worse only in Istanbul (118 hours).
The report notes that automobile traffic worsened in most of the world in 2025. About 88% of all U.S. cities reported increasing time wasted in traffic. Nationwide, the typical driver lost 49 hours in 2025 due to traffic jams, up six hours from 2024, according to the report.
Some cities were outliers. Congestion stayed relatively flat in NYC, London and Paris. NYC likely bucked the trend of worsening traffic globally, in part due to Manhattan’s new congestion pricing.
Chicago politicians have flirted with the idea of a downtown congestion tax on all drivers.
Chicago already has downtown congestion charge on ride-hailing apps. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot settled on a $40 million a year congestion fee on rideshares to and from downtown to help plug a budget gap in 2019 — after exploring options, such as taxing all downtown drivers.
Lower use of public transit could also be contributing to worsen traffic.
Nationally, the percentage of people commuting by car is nearly back to 2019 levels, according to the report. Public transit, however, is down 22% from 2019.
Inrix used GPS data to track commutes and calculate the average speed of the last mile of people’s trips. Chicago’s last-mile speed was 9 mph in 2025, falling below NYC’s speed of 11 mph and Istanbul’s 13 mph.
The report also notes the top most congested roads in the nation. Outbound Interstate 55 from the I-90 interchange ranked 7th in the nation for worst congestion, with an average of 87 hours lost annually to each driver taking it daily.
Although Chicago ranked no. 1 in worst U.S. traffic in 2022, the city had much higher levels of time wasted: 155 hours according to Inrix’s report that year.