Phoenix Ranked 43rd Most Congested City in US (transplants, credit)

[ShampooBanana]

Based on this:

TomTom Traffic Index

Not bad at all considering it's the 14th largest metro area in the US by population. Credit superior highway and road network infrastructure compared to almost any other cities in the US.

Coming from Chicago, I always laughed at complaints from others about the traffic in Phoenix. As you can see, it could be a LOT worse. The 202 South Loop (South Mountain) extension, completion of the 303/I-10 interchange, and the widening on the 101 from Shea to 202 is only going to help things go more smoothly.

[sandy6879]

I agree that traffic here at least MOVES. Where I lived before, it was a dead stop or crawling pace at rush hour. That being said - it also can take a lot more miles in slow moving traffic to get "across town." The Phoenix metro is HUGE. I don't think people realize just how large an area it is when they are looking at it.

[BIG CATS]

When there are no accidents, traffic is bad, but not horrible.The problem is people here cannot drive for crap, which results in several daily accidents, and sections of highways being shut down seemingly on a daily basis. THATS where I think the difference lies. I cant remember a single week since Ive lived here where I had a trouble-free/accident-free commute either to or from work. There's ALWAYS an accident somewhere that jacks up the highways. I remember sitting for almost 2 hours in traffic on the 51 between Bethany Home and Northern because of an accident. Im talking, what, maybe 3-4 miles between the roads? I was in the lane next to the HOV lane, so getting over was nearly impossible because noone was moving an inch. All exits were jammed and not moving, too. Drivers out here are the absolute worst!!!!

[Dover there]

I agree Big cats! Been here 4 months and every time I get on highway there's an accident. I've never seen anything like it. I've lived in Denver and Chicago.

[new2colo]

Some people here think going below 55 on the freeways here counts as massive gridlock. So many small town Midwestern transplants and Arizona "natives" who think we're in the big leagues have no clue. Just because you have to brake and maybe come to a dead stop a couple times doesn't make us LA or Houston.

If people would stop getting into constant accidents, traffic would flow better. The number of scuff marks along concrete freeway barriers from people who have managed to lose control of their vehicles on freeway stretches here is mind boggling. Drive straight, don't tailgate, stop braking when there's no one in front of you, stop cutting people off, stop merging into other cars, keep right except to pass, and PLEASE stop with the rubbernecking. With these steps, we could get Phoenix down to 100th most congested city.

[Java Jolt]

Originally Posted by ShampooBanana

Based on this:

TomTom Traffic Index

Not bad at all considering it's the 14th largest metro area in the US by population. Credit superior highway and road network infrastructure compared to almost any other cities in the US.

Coming from Chicago, I always laughed at complaints from others about the traffic in Phoenix. As you can see, it could be a LOT worse. The 202 South Loop (South Mountain) extension, completion of the 303/I-10 interchange, and the widening on the 101 from Shea to 202 is only going to help things go more smoothly.

Oh no, please not this tomtom report again, it's not accurate at all.

There are other souces that rank Phoenix much higher in traffic congestion.

According to this site we're fourteenth most congested.

14. Phoenix, Arizona | Top 15 Cities with the Worst Traffic | XFINITY

[elcajones]

At least we're moving????? Once your way on an outskirt maybe. Rush hour is pretty much gridlock on the 10. 101, 17 51 and 60 daily. It is what it is. More or less the same crap as San Diego. It comes with living in a big metro area. It could be much much worse like LA but it's not a nonissue.

[Flavia84]

I think that Phoenix drivers are pretty mellow for a metro our size. It's no Montana of course, but Colorado for instance has way more agressive drivers than Arizona. In NY drivers are plain rude. In Utah a lot of not very, ahem, skilled drivers... In Phoenix more often than not people give way to pedestrians and yield if you're trying to change lanes.

As far as gridlock, imho Phoenix traffic is a joke. But again, I've lived in some of the most congested cities in the world so it's all about the perspective.

[ghdana]

Originally Posted by Java Jolt

Oh no, please not this tomtom report again, it's not accurate at all.

There are other souces that rank Phoenix much higher in traffic congestion.

According to this site we're fourteenth most congested.

14. Phoenix, Arizona | Top 15 Cities with the Worst Traffic | XFINITY

Reposting from your other thread

Show me evidence that isn't anecdotal that TomTom is wrong. I live nearish to Rochester(northern PA, have friends that go to RIT and go to concerts there), and the traffic can also come to a stop at times, and there is snow which causes accidents all winter long that would attribute to slower traffic.

How does Xfinity(Comcast) get this info? I'd say a GPS company that can get real time statistics would be the most reliable of all. TomTom, Google(maybe Apple), and Garmin would be the only 3 companies that I'd assume have real time GPS locations of every GPS in the US. Every Android phone with location turned on reports to Google unless you opt out. Go look at traffic on Google Maps during most cities rush hours, Phoenix doesn't have a huge amount of red compared to most American cities.

Edit. Your source uses this which is all reliant on human measurement
2012 Urban Mobility Report and Appendices if you look you see that Phoenix is ranked 14 out of the 18 very large metros, and there are cities of every size with a slower speed than Phoenix, so if you put them all together it would be even further down the list(arterial street speeds are faster in Phoenix, than Rochester, even according to the study you posted, they're just in different categories and not eligible for the list you posted).

TomTom uses hard numbers measured by actual drivers(TomTom Traffic Index), which anyone under 30 will likely trust more than Comcast.

Typed this on a tablet so sorry for any misspellings or grammatical errors

[ShampooBanana]

Originally Posted by Java Jolt

Oh no, please not this tomtom report again, it's not accurate at all.

There are other souces that rank Phoenix much higher in traffic congestion.

According to this site we're fourteenth most congested.

14. Phoenix, Arizona | Top 15 Cities with the Worst Traffic | XFINITY

I'm not sure how Comcast/XFINITY is a more legit source than a company that's makes its money off GPS. Plus their metrics are not really that correlative nor a measure of congestion. A city with more commute miles traveled (Phoenix is going to be higher than most in this regard simply due to the size of the metro area) is naturally going to result in more time and gas money spent, but says nothing about the level of congestion during said commutes.