US drivers spent nearly 63 hours a year — a record high — sitting in traffic

Americans are spending more of their lives sitting in traffic due to shifting work patterns and their voracious appetites for online shopping, a new report from Texas A&M finds.

In 2024, U.S. auto commuters spent an average of 63 hours sitting in traffic, according to the Urban Mobility Report from Texas A&M’s Transportation Institute. Sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation, the annual report examined traffic patterns in 494 urban areas across the United States. It found congestion patterns exceeding their pre-pandemic 2019 averages to hit a national 9.8 billion hours of delays. Over the course of a decade, U.S. motorists drove 13% more miles but suffered through traffic delays that were up 22%.

Although far from shocking, congestion has chugged upward since 1982: Last year’s record-breaking number was two hours higher than the 2023 delays per car commuter. It also boiled down to a 16% rise in congestion costs (delay time and fuel used) the report found, hitting $269 billion in 2024.

The findings also come as commute times rise, according to Census Bureau data. In 2024, that meant U.S. workers age 16 and older spent an average of 27.2 minutes commuting, up from 26.8 in 2023.

“The numbers show more traffic than we’ve ever seen, but also a different kind of traffic,” lead author David Schrank, a senior research scientist with the institute, said in a statement. “Hybrid work capabilities, online shopping and other changes in our daily lives have reshaped when and where congestion happens. This can create more unpredictability and make travel harder to plan.”

Large urban areas across the country recorded the highest average hours of delay per driver. These were the top five based on hours spent in traffic:

Other delay-prone areas included San Francisco, where commuters spent roughly 267 million hours in traffic, with a commuter delay of 134 hours per driver, and the Washington, D.C., region, which had approximately 232 million hours and an average delay of 90 hours.

One of the report’s biggest findings? Shifts in traffic patterns.

Those changes, the “different kind of traffic” that Schrank mentioned, stemmed partially from shifting work patterns, with weekday commuters traveling at different hours or staying off the road altogether. Congestion increased during the middle of the day, indicating that more people were on the road during off-peak hours (roughly 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays).

Broadly speaking, weekday contributions to traffic delays inched up when comparing pre-pandemic 2019 with 2024. Friday, a popular day for remote work, was an exception, representing a smaller percentage of weekly delay than it did in 2019. Weekend congestion also changed, with Saturday and Sunday’s share spiking to around 9% and 7%, respectively.

An increase in e-commerce and the use of shipping vehicles also contributed to the nation’s shifting traffic habits. As U.S. consumers shop for more of their essentials online, truck congestion has risen 19% since 2019, with trucks making up 5% of urban delay hours in 2024, the report found. Truck traffic also accounted for 13% of the nation’s congestion costs, underscoring the longer and farther journeys that freight vehicles undertake.

Roughly 17% of truck-related traffic delays happened on weekends, and 57% occurred during periods of peak road demand. Predictably, cities known for both their port activity and traffic held the largest share of freight-related delays: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim; New York-Newark; and Chicago.

“This year’s numbers challenge us to think differently about travel,” Schrank said in the statement. “Why are people on the road? Can we shift some of that demand or give travelers more reliable options? We’re getting the tools and data to answer those questions and act on them in ways we couldn’t before.”