World’s worst traffic explained
Tehran (KNA) - Los Angeles is probably as famous for its traffic congestion as it is for the iconic Hollywood Sign.
Despite the planned expansion of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system, and the popularity of "walkable communities" such as Playa Vista in the Westside and the beachfront neighborhood of Santa Monica, LA's congestion levels are still among the worst in the world.
"One of the things that has characterized Los Angeles over the past quarter century is that the metropolitan area has been continuing to grow," says Brian D Taylor, director of the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and the Institute of Transportation Studies at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.
"It's portrayed in media and movies as a city of sunshine and palm trees, and tracts of single-family houses stretching off into the horizon -- when actually, as an urbanized area, it's the densest in the country, more so than New York."
The root of the problem
Drivers in LA spent, on average, over 102 hours in traffic at peak times in 2017, according to transportation analytics firm Inrix -- that's the most time drivers spent in rush-hour jams in any city in the world.
Other US cities such as New York City and San Francisco suffer from similar levels of overall congestion as LA, according to Inrix. Their geographic areas, however, are much smaller than that of LA, meaning that drivers have a shorter commute, and hence spend less time in congestion during rush hour.
Source: CNN