Atlanta traffic among worst in the world, study finds

ATLANTA — To no Atlanta commuter's surprise, the metro recently ranked among the top most congested cities in the world, according to a new report by transportation analytics firm INRIX.

According to INRIX's 2016 Global Traffic Scorecard, Atlanta ranked eighth in the world for congestion with the average commuter spending 70.8 hours in traffic each year.

Nationally, the metro came in fourth.

We're looking into why researchers say navigation apps aimed at shortening trip times can make traffic worse, and how Georgia’s Department of  Transportation says they’re beating bottlenecks, Monday at 5 p.m. on Channel 2 Action News.

Last year, Atlanta was No. 11 on the global list.

To come up with the database and ranking, INRIX analysts examined congestion in 1,064 cities in 38 countries and calculated the percentage of time drivers spent in congestion at different times of the day and week using federal data.

According to an INRIX press release, cities were ranked by the time the average commuter spent in congestion at the busiest time of day.

The most congested country, according to the Global Traffic Scorecard, is Thailand, with the typical commuter spending nearly 61 hours in traffic each year in peak congestion.

Though the U.S. came in fourth globally, five American cities rounded out the top 10 most congested cities in the world with Los Angeles, California, leading them all.

1. Los Angeles, California (104.1)
2. Moscow, Russia (91.4)
3. New York, New York (89.4)
4. San Francisco, California (82.6)
5. Bogota, Colombia (79.8)
6. Sao Paulo, Brazil (77.2)
7. London, England (73.4)
8. Atlanta, Georgia (70.8)
9. Paris, France (65.3)
10. Miami, Florida (64.8)

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