Boise Ranks As One of the Most Traffic Congested Cities
Sometimes I utter things in traffic like "ugh, this is the longest wait at in intersection ever." While I'm obviously being dramatic, I'm now learning that there might be some truth in there. Well it's no surprise that Boise is home to some of the most annoying traffic, you may be surprised to hear that Boise ranks #16 on the list for traffic congestion levels in North America.
As one of the highest on the lists for most traffic congested cities, Boise had more congestive traffic than Atlanta, Chicago, Portland, San Diego, and Boston in 2020. On top of that, Boise had a congestion level of 18 percent. That's just nine percent away from number one Los Angeles. That's right, the traffic here is almost comparable to that of notorious LA traffic.
According to the data, Boise drive spent 59 hours driving in rush hour traffic over the year. Tuesdays 5 PM - 6 PM saw the worst of rush hour. February proved to be the most congested month - right before the pandemic struck in March.
TomTom's rankings covered 416 cities across 57 countries on 6 continents and the data is extremely in-depth. It's actually encouraged to be utilized by drivers, city planners, automakers and policy makers to help tackle traffic-related challenges.
Speaking of traffic-related challenges there are some unbearable intersections here in the Treasure Valley (EVERY INTERSECTION ON EAGLE ROAD) that causes some serious traffic headaches and could use some strategic re-construction in my opinion. Eagle Road is enough to put Boise where it ranks on the list. With the influx of people moving to Boise though, all the traffic sort of makes sense. It'll be interesting to see where Boise ranks in 2021.