Philadelphia ranked in the top five among the worst traffic cities in the U.S., according to the Global Traffic Scorecard recently published by INRIX, a Washington State transportation data and analytics firm. Michael Bartiromo and Jessica Yakubovsky cited the findings for PHL17.

According to the report, American drivers lost 51 hours sitting in traffic on average last year, a 15-hour increase over 2021.

But these snarls still do not equal those of prepandemic travel.

Philadelphia more than doubled the nation’s average, with 114 hours lost, placing it in fourth among the worst traffic cities nationally. It behind only Chicago, Boston, and New York.

According to the report, congestion cost $1,925 per driver in Philadelphia last year.

Philadelphia saw an increase in lost hours of 27 percent in 2022 compared with 2021, but the City of Brotherly Love is still 20 percent under the prepandemic levels of 2019.

Philadelphia also made it into the top ten in the world, ranking at No. 8.

INRIX predicts that delays and congestion will likely get worse in 2023 unless Americans are forced to change their driving behaviors due to the recession.

Read more about the worst traffic cities in PHL17.

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What causes traffic jams? This NOVA piece looks into the obvious (accidents) and not-so-obvious (human behavior) sources of snarls.