Boston ranks fourth in the world for worst traffic

BOSTON — Boston is being ranked as having the second worst traffic in the country — behind Chicago. The report from a group that studies traffic patterns worldwide says the average driver in our area spends about 134 hours a year in their car.

The global study, conducted by INRIX, on traffic says locally — Boston has some of the most backed up roads. 4th in the world — second in the country. All you have to do is look at any of our traffic cameras to see the congestion and gridlock everywhere. “Too much traffic,” said a driver.

Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch is on the MBTA Board of Directors. He says the jam packed roads are only going to ease up if people get on the T. “The perception has been that the T is not reliable,” said Koch. “If you look at the numbers on the T, the ridership is still lower than where we were.” Mayor Koch says the state is investing in the public transportation again after decades of neglect but everyone needs to consider changing their driving habits. “Many times you can be walking, many times you could be double that trip getting a couple of things done at once. We all complain about traffic but we are part of the problem,” said Koch.

Cities like Quincy have reconfigured some intersections to help alleviate traffic. For example, there is now two left turn lanes to get cars onto Quincy Shore Drive and onto Boston. “Getting traffic to move more freely, safely. Make it safer for pedestrians as well,” said Koch.

A MassDOT spokesperson says they have observed similar congestion patterns telling us, “our engineers are continuing to identify and implement a variety of options that improve safety, access to multimodal transportation options, and that ease congestion.” The state is also trying to get the T to win back riders.

The State says it is also going after grants to improve roadways and make traffic flow more efficient.

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