Pittsburgh traffic congestion on the rise

PITTSBURGH — Think traffic’s getting worse in and out of Pittsburgh? An international study of vehicle travel patterns agrees with you.

Pittsburgh has the 15th-worst traffic in the United States, with an average of 43 hours per year lost sitting in the car without moving during 2023. That’s according to a new study by Inrix, an analytics firm that measured traffic patterns annually in the world’s biggest cities.

That’s five hours more than in 2022 and the delay cost the average motorist $749 in extra gasoline and the region $724 million in wasted productivity, Inrix said. Even though the number of hours in traffic was down 14% compared to the pre-Covid ranking, Pittsburgh’s ranking actually fell by one place year over year. In 2022, Pittsburgh was No. 14 on Inrix’s list.