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The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
Forbes has made public what many Nashville area residents would say they have already known, placing the city at the top of their list of cities with the worst commute.
Forbes Home recently released a ranking of the top 25 largest cities with the worst traffic commute. Nashville ranked number one on the list, even against cities like Los Angeles and New York.
Despite the fact that Forbes says only about 74% of Americans commute to work every day, compared to 90% in 2009, Music City is still seeing major traffic issues.
The ranking was based on the average time spent commuting each day, access to public transportation, walkability of a city, bikeability of a city, and the percentage of workers per household who do not have a vehicle. Information was gathered from the 2021 U.S. Census and WalkScore.com, along with other metrics.
Forbes noted that Nashville has around 452,000 workers who are over the age of 16. The average commute time is clocked at around 29.6 minutes. Just under 3% of those workers do not have a car, but the city’s walkability, biking, and public transit scores come in consistently lower than other major metropolitan areas.
Several other cities have longer commute times than Nashville does, with the average commute in Los Angeles being 32.30 minutes. Residents in Washington, D.C. can expect an average of 37.20 minutes to get to work, while New York City traffic can cause an average commute time of 43 minutes.
However, Nashville only has a walk score of 28.8 out of 100 possible points. The public transit score is 21.7, and the bike score is 29.7. New York City is much better equipped in those areas, with a walk score of 88 and a transit score of 89.
Because Music City residents rely heavily on cars to get to work, the increased traffic on the road causes drivers to give up approximately 41 hours a year in the daily commute.
According to Forbes, the top five most difficult cities for commuting are –
1. Nashville, Tennessee
2. Charlotte, North Carolina
3. Jacksonville, Florida
4. Houston, Texas
5. Washington, D.C.
Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Dallas, and Fort Worth round out the top 10 worst commutes.
Nashville is also one of the worst commuting cities globally, according to Inrix, a traffic data company. The city is reported to be the 131st most congested city in the world.
Several city and state departments produced studies earlier this year, warning that traffic would only continue to get worse unless changes were made to the state’s infrastructure.
“Traffic is going to continue to grow, and if we do nothing, we are going to be in a deeper and deeper problem,” said Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Butch Eley at a budget meeting with Governor Lee.
A number of different options to help solve the traffic problem have been proposed by legislators and government bodies. One of those options includes a push for choice lanes, or toll lanes, that drivers can use for a fee.
One Response
I don’t believe that Nashville is the “worst commuter city in the US” – that defies common sense.
Be careful TCN – don’t be played by the Libs who want Regional Rail Transit, which is a financial disaster.
For example – I think the train to Lebanon loses $10,000 per passenger per year. If you check into that, study how they define a “passenger” – thaty define it as a “trip”. So a commuter who rides the train to and from work 250 days a year is counted as 500 “passengers”. That’s right – they call one person 500 passengers – it’s a scam.
The obvious solution is to encourage more people to Work from Home.