DC region's 'brutal commute' ranks No. 1 for the country's worst traffic

[marmar]

(WTOP) Drivers in the D.C. region spend more time dealing with traffic than any other city in the nation, according to a new ranking from Consumer Affairs which looked at traffic data from the 50 biggest metropolitan areas in the nation.

The D.C. region knocked Los Angeles off its throne to claim the top spot, and did that with an average commute of 33.4 minutes and traffic congestion in the region which lasts 6 hours and 35 minutes.

“D.C. drivers have a tougher experience overall, and that is the combination of brutal commute times and daily gridlock,” said Lauren Jobe with Consumer Affairs. “When you add that up over the year, that’s about 71 days worth of just sitting in traffic.”

Now, Los Angeles still takes the checkered flag for the most congestion, with almost eight hours of bumper-to-bumper traffic each day, but the average commute time in the City of Angels is just over 30 minutes. ................(more)

https://wtop.com/dc/2025/07/dc-regions-brutal-commute-ranks-it-1-for-the-worst-traffic/

[Ritabert]

1. When we traveled from FL to MA we took a road in western VA, MD, PA, NY to the Mass Pike to avoid the Beltway

Traffic was brutal even 20 years ago.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

2. It doesn't help...

...that the Metro system here in the DC area sucks.

We used to take the Metro from a Northern Virginia suburb to the Navy Yard station when we would go to baseball games at Nats Park. On our last trip on the Metro last year, we decided that the dirty trains, the overwhelming smell of pot, and being witness to oral sex on the train was more than we were willing to deal with just to go to a baseball game. Fortunately, the water taxi between Old Town Alexandria and Nats Park is running again this year, so we drive to Old Town, park, and take that to the games.

[Easterncedar]

3. Laying off all those federal workers, closing DC offices might help

Think of all the collateral jobs also being lost: restaurants and other food service, all kinds of building maintenance - from cleaning to window washing to HVAC installation and repair to electrical systems - and computer services, electronic equipment, hotels, conferences. The goons hate DC.

Moving the USDA to the midwest - what an efficient plan.

[Deep State Witch]

5. USDA

Has a huge research area that stretches across Prince Georges County from Rt. 1 in Beltsville to around Rt. 50 in Bowie. I'm sure that developers would LOVE to get their greasy hands on some of these prime properties to build McMansions on.

There's also the Agricultural Library and research offices on Rt. 1 in Beltsville that will likely go away. Again, prime real estate.

https://livingnewdeal.org/sites/henry-a-wallace-beltsville-agricultural-research-center-beltsville-md/

[Deep State Witch]

4. I Believe It

While I was fortunate enough to not work in DC during my career, my husband did at one point. He rode the train down into DC, then Metro to his office's location.

That being said, now that we're retired and volunteering with our local cat rescue to drive cats to the SPCA to get fixed, we're on the Beltway a couple of times a week. It's a total parking lot. That and the Baltimore/Washington Parkway, which needs to be expanded to 3 lanes.