Illinois City Is #1 In US & #2 In World For This Traffic Issue

It's not a surprising fact that Illinois is one of the worst places in the world for driving and traffic.

Chicago Is Home To Some Of The Worst Traffic In The World

I know firsthand how bad the traffic is in and around Chicago. I grew up in the suburbs, and getting anywhere has always taken forever. It doesn't matter the day of the week or time of the day, you're going to get stuck in some sort of gridlock.

READ MORE: Your Next Trip Into Chicago Won't Be As Bad, For Now

I remember growing up my dad was late for dinner just about every day because he would get caught up in rush hour traffic. It doesn't help that the highways always seem to be under construction. Grab yourself a Snickers because you're not going anywhere for a while.

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Then throw a big event or multiple events on top of that and you're going to be crawling in traffic for hours. I've been to other cities and it's not as bad as Chicago. There are just not enough highways or lanes into the city.

A couple of months ago, I was in Cleveland for the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame ceremony. It was a sold-out arena. Right next door, the Guardians were playing a sold-out playoff baseball game. Plus, everything else going on in town. The delay took maybe an extra ten minutes to get there.

A recent study was done about traffic around the world. It's no surprise that Chicago is one of the worst. For time wasted spent in traffic, it's # 1 in the United States tied with New York City and # 2 in the world behind Istanbul.

Global Traffic Scorecard

Overall, drivers in Chicago are wasting 102 hours by just sitting in traffic. That's over four days in total. You could take a nice long road trip with that kind of time. During that congestion, the average speed limit is 13 mph. That's horrible.