Traffic in Philly may feel like the worst, but it’s far from it — and getting better

It might be hard for drivers to believe while sitting at a standstill on Interstate 76 during rush hour, but traffic in Philadelphia is actually improving — at least compared to other major cities.

ConsumerAffairs released its annual report this month in which its research team examined data to rank the 50 most populous metropolitan areas in the country by those with the worst traffic. In the latest analysis, Philadelphia ranked 21st behind Denver, Boston and Nashville — an improvement from 16th in 2024.

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Washington overtook Los Angeles as the worst this year, with Miami jumping from 12th to third in the rankings.

The platform looked at three key metrics in its analysis: daily commute time, length of weekday congestion and rate of fatal car crashes. Each category was weighted differently to create an overall score.

Using U.S. Census Bureau statistics for travel time to work for people 16 and older who weren't remote, Philly's average commute of 28.1 minutes was 18th highest — between Tampa (28.3) and Austin (28).

Congestion time was calculated for weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. using the Federal Highway Administration's most recent Urban Congestion Report (January 2025 to March 2025) and is defined as "the average number of hours during specified time periods in which road sections are congested — speeds less than 90% of free-flow speed." Philly's weekday congestion time of 4 hours ranked 21st and was more than an hour less than some of its Northeast peers on the list, including Washington (6 hours, 35 minutes), New York (5 hours, 42 minutes) and Baltimore (5 hours, 41 minutes).

As for the rate of fatal car crashes, calculated using data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Philly's 7.63 per 100,000 people was 14th highest — between Detroit (7.76) and Cleveland (7.6).