Portland Is the 12th Worst City For Commuting In The Country

A study confirms what most Portlanders already know: Our traffic sucks.

It's not just in your head: Portland traffic has gotten really bad.

A study by INRIX confirms how much our traffic sucks by ranking us as the city with the 12th worst commute in the country, and 40th in the world. That's out of 240 US cities and 1,064 worldwide.

The rankings were determined by average time spent in traffic per year, which for Portlanders was 47 hours in 2016. While that's not nearly as much as LA, the number one city on the list where the average time spent year was 104, it's a sharp increase from 2015 when we were the 86th worst city worldwide.

The study states that "population and economic growth alongside continued urbanization are the root causes of congestion." So it's not surprising that Portland placed so high on the list, considering that Oregon's population growth last year was the highest it's been since the mid 90s.

Many of Portland's recent transportation infrastructure projects have been aimed at cyclists and public transit. Along with Tilikum Crossing and the new Orange Line, the Sellwood Bridge remodel added giant sidewalks and bike lanes on either side of the bridge without anymore motorist lanes. And of course there's BikeTown, the city's long awaited bike share.

Along with the financial implications of longer commutes that the study points out, long periods of time spent in your car are also harmful to your health. So while it's getting worse to get around the city by car, basically all your problems could be solved by getting a bike.

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