Photo via TomTom
Photo via TomTom

An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic may not sound like much, but when it adds up over a year it becomes 89 hours.

That’s according to the new TomTom Traffic Index report based on 2014 data.

Seattle traffic along 2nd Avenue. (Photo via Oran Viri)
Seattle traffic along 2nd Avenue. (Photo via Oran Viri)

The GPS maker ranked 200 of the world’s cities to assess traffic congestion. With an overall rate of 31 percent, Seattle tied for No. 4 with New York City, following Los Angeles, San Francisco and Honolulu, respectively, as having the worst traffic congestion in the United States. L.A. was also the only city bad enough to crack the global top 10, with Istanbul taking top honors.

Worldwide, Seattle ranks No. 46, which doesn’t sound very high, but when you’re going car-to-car against much more populous areas, like New York, well we’ve got a little problem. And with the constant influx of new residents to Seattle to take jobs at Amazon and other tech companies, it’s looking a little grim out there traffic-wise.

TomTom said it conducts the study to “provide the general public, industry and policy makers with unique and unbiased information about congestion levels in urban areas.” They measure traffic during the entire day, taking peak travel times and comparing those with “free-flow” conditions’ to come up with the lost travel time. TomTom also pinpoints the worst times of day to commute — and it’s the rush hour home.

Since our roads aren’t going to magically expand and improve anytime soon, any good traffic hacks out there to share?

We know some Seattle residents are trying to Hack the Commute. But we’d like to hear your ideas, too.

Photo via TomTom
Photo via TomTom
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