Austin's I-35 Named as Nation's #4 for Worst Traffic

The Daily Beast named Austin the 4th worst in the nation for traffic because of weekly hours of bottleneck congestion on the dreaded I-35.

We've all been there; rush hour and the line of cars at a standstill has pushed back your lunch date, your meeting, or your arrival home.  You'd rather be anywhere but stuck in this mess.  News 8 Traffic Reporter Joe Taylor says it's the most traveled stretch of roadway in Austin.  “It’s quirky. It was designed for a small town, and we’ve grown into a very large city.”

The Daily Beast compiled a list of the country's 75 worst traffic nightmares.  Staff writers confirm it in black and white:

Bumper-to-bumper traffic is America’s collective nightmare, and like the movie Groundhog Day it repeats on a daily basis.  Congestion consumes billions of gallons of fuel, wastes hundreds of billions of dollars in productivity and causes billions of stress headaches. Yet over 100 million automobile commuters each day feel like they have little option. “We put so much of our national wealth and our identity into the whole motoring thing,” says James Howard Kunstler, author of Geography of Nowhere, “that we can’t imagine doing something different.”

The city and the road coming in at number one is Los Angeles'  Hollywood Freeway, followed by Honolulu's Lunalilo Freeway and Washington D.C.'s Capital Beltway.  Last on the list is Richmond, Virginia's I-95.

Here's Austin's breakdown, and let us know what you think!  Do you sit in traffic day after day?  We want to hear from you!

Weekly hours of bottleneck congestion: 460
Worst bottleneck: Northbound, Riverside Dr
Length of worst bottleneck: .92 mi
Weekly hours of congestion on worst bottleneck: 47
Speed of worst bottleneck when congested: 16.2 mph