The number of people working from home in the United States more than tripled during the pandemic. According to the Census Bureau, 27.6 million Americans worked primarily from home in 2021, up from just 9 million in 2019. While having a makeshift office in the house makes it difficult for some remote workers to separate themselves from their work at the end of the day, one nearly universally recognized benefit is the elimination of a commute.

The average commuter in the United States spends about 27 minutes getting to work. For the typical, full-time worker, this adds up to about 4 hours and 30 minutes each week, and over 230 hours annually.

For some – particularly those who live and work in densely-populated urban areas – much of that time is spent sitting in traffic. Of the two cities in Missouri with available data, St. Louis ranks as having the worst traffic, according to INRIX, a traffic data and analytics company.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 117,199 people in the city who either drive or carpool to work. Among them, the typical commuter lost an average of 17 hours to traffic in 2022, up 68% from 2021. Of all 280 U.S. cities covered in the INRIX report, St. Louis ranks 91st for traffic delays.

All traffic delay data in this story is from the 2022 Global Traffic Scorecard, from INRIX. Supplementary data on the number of commuters who drive are five year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey.

 

State	City with the worst traffic	Typical hours spent in traffic, 2022	Avg. commute time (minutes)	Commuters who drive or carpool (%)
Alabama	Birmingham	24	22	92.8
Arizona	Phoenix	26	26	93.0
Arkansas	Little Rock	4	18	95.6
California	San Francisco	97	33	43.8
Colorado	Denver	54	26	84.0
Connecticut	Stamford	73	28	80.0
Delaware	Wilmington	19	23	79.4
Florida	Miami	105	28	81.8
Georgia	Atlanta	74	28	79.4
Hawaii	Hilo	29	19	94.6
Idaho	Boise	7	19	91.4
Illinois	Chicago	155	34	62.7
Indiana	Indianapolis	24	24	94.8
Iowa	Des Moines	7	19	93.7
Kansas	Topeka	0	17	95.8
Kentucky	Lexington	22	21	92.6
Louisiana	New Orleans	77	23	82.7
Maine	Bangor	8	17	89.2
Maryland	Baltimore	55	31	73.9
Massachusetts	Boston	134	31	47.3
Michigan	Detroit	23	26	85.9
Minnesota	Minneapolis	26	23	74.4
Mississippi	Jackson	4	21	97.1
Missouri	St. Louis	17	23	85.5
Montana	Missoula	22	16	85.8
Nebraska	Omaha	14	19	94.9
Nevada	Las Vegas	41	26	92.2
New Hampshire	Manchester	13	24	95.1
New Jersey	Ocean Township	17	34	88.6
New Mexico	Albuquerque	20	22	94.3
New York	New York City	117	41	30.0
North Carolina	Charlotte	25	25	92.8
North Dakota	Fargo	0	16	92.4
Ohio	Cleveland	20	23	84.3
Oklahoma	Oklahoma City	14	22	96.2
Oregon	Portland	72	26	74.5
Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	114	33	62.9
Rhode Island	Providence	42	24	84.1
South Carolina	Greenville	23	20	92.1
Tennessee	Nashville	41	25	93.8
Texas	Houston	74	28	91.0
Utah	Ogden	14	21	93.0
Virginia	Fredericksburg	24	30	87.6
Washington	Seattle	46	28	59.4
West Virginia	Wheeling	12	19	92.8
Wisconsin	Milwaukee	32	22	87.5