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New York Traffic is Second Worst in Country, Report Says

By DNAinfo Staff on March 8, 2011 3:26pm

New York area traffic is the second worst in the country when it comes to bumper-to-bumper gridlock.
New York area traffic is the second worst in the country when it comes to bumper-to-bumper gridlock.
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Flickr/jon.t

By Mariel S. Clark

DNAinfo News Editor

MANHATTAN — This is one time New York doesn't want to be No. 1 — the Big Apple is closing in on Los Angeles as the most gridlocked city in the country, according to a new report on highway travel.

Even though L.A. is the most congested city, a more than 11-mile stretch of I-95 including the George Washington Bridge and the Cross Bronx Expressway is the worst traffic corridor in the U.S., according to the 2010 INRIX National Traffic Scorecard.

The jammed-up eastbound Long Island Expressway and the packed westbound Brooklyn Queens Expressway were also top 10 bottlenecks, which helped steer the city into the No. 2 spot once again in 2010.

But experts say it could take less than a year for New York to overtake L.A. as the city with the worst traffic, according to reports.

The New York area congestion in 2010 was equal to about 99 percent of that experienced by an L.A. driver, up from 86 percent just a year earlier, the report showed.

The study found the traffic snarls cost drivers roughly 80 hours in travel time per year for just their evening commutes.

And the bumper-to-bumper misery is only expected to get worse as the economy improves and more people commute to and from work, the report said.