Study finds worst bottlenecks in Mass. — right where you thought they’d be

Traffic headed into Boston over the Zakim bridge. Globe file

Massachusetts is home to three of the worst highway bottlenecks in the country, according to a report released Monday.

The worst bottleneck locally is a 1.9-mile stretch of Interstate 93 through the O’Neill Tunnel and over the Zakim Bridge, a section of road where drivers spend an estimated 2.1 million hours combined stuck in traffic each year, according to the report from the American Highway Users Alliance.

That segment, from Interstate 90 (Massachusetts Turnpike) to Route 1, which was remade by the mammoth Big Dig project, ranks nationally as the 15th most-congested bottleneck.

The time wasted there costs drivers an estimated $58 million, and nearly 2 million gallons of wasted fuel, annually, the report said.

Another stretch of Interstate 93 ranks as the 28th worst bottleneck in the US.

That 1.2-mile section of highway in Milton, between Edge Hill Road and West Street, consumes an estimated 1 million hours of drivers’ time — which the report valued at $28 million — annually, the report said. More than 362,000 gallons of fuel are wasted there each year.

And a short segment of the Massachusetts Turnpike ranks as the 50th worst bottleneck nationwide.

The one-third mile drive inside the Massachusetts Turnpike tunnel in Boston, between Dorchester Avenue and A Street in Boston, claims an estimated 200,000 hours of motorists’ time annually. It costs drivers an estimated $7 million worth of time, and 135,000 gallons of fuel, to sit in traffic there.

The worst bottleneck in the country is in Chicago, the report found. Drivers spend 16.9 million hours — or $418 million worth of time — traveling along a 12-mile stretch of Interstate 90 there, wasting more than 6.3 million gallons of fuel along the way.

The report found that most of the worst bottlenecks are located in large metropolitan areas. New York City and Los Angeles had the greatest concentration.

The top 30 bottlenecks in the US deplete about 91 million hours of drivers’ time — worth $2.4 billion — annually, the report said.

The study said its findings are based on GPS data about vehicle speeds.

The report called on Congress to increase funding for roadway infrastructure nationwide.

Kathleen Bower, AAA vice president of public affairs and international relations, called the report results “a sad reminder that bottlenecks harm the quality of life of motorists nationwide.”

“Our states desperately need stable and predictable funding to fix these problems so that highway bottlenecks no longer rob people of time, endanger driver safety or cause costly wear and tear on our vehicles,” said a statement from Bower.

The 50 worst bottlenecks in the US

National Rank	State	Urban Area	Location	Queue Length (miles)	Annual Total Delay (hours)	Annual Lost Value Of Time (US $)	Annual Fuel Wasted / Potential Savings (gallons)
1	Illinois	Chicago	I90 between Roosevelt Rd and N Nagle Ave	12	16,900,000	$418,000,000	6,370,000
2	California	Los Angeles	I405 between SR22 and I605	4.1	7,100,000	$191,000,000	1,819,480
3	California	Los Angeles	I10 between Santa Fe Ave and Crenshaw Blvd	6.9	6,900,000	$187,000,000	2,231,840
4	California	Los Angeles	I405 between Venice Blvd and Wilshire Blvd	5.2	6,300,000	$169,000,000	1,961,960
5	California	Los Angeles	US101 between Franklin Ave and Glendale Blvd	4.4	5,400,000	$146,000,000	1,761,500
6	California	Los Angeles	I110 between Exposition Blvd and Stadium Way	4.3	5,400,000	$145,000,000	1,855,880
7	California	Los Angeles	US101 between Sepulveda Blvd and Laurel Canyon Blvd	3.8	3,600,000	$96,000,000	1,047,800
8	New York and New Jersey	New York	Lincoln Tunnel between 10th Ave and John F Kennedy Blvd	2.6	3,400,000	$87,000,000	1,730,300
9	New York	New York	I95 between I895 and Broadway	3.1	3,000,000	$82,000,000	1,545,700
10	Texas	Austin	I35 between East Riverside Dr and E Dean Keeton St	3	3,000,000	$73,000,000	1,776,320
11	California	Los Angeles	I5/I10 between N Mission Rd and US101	2	2,300,000	$62,000,000	966,680
12	California	San Francisco	I80 between US101 and Bay Bridge	1.9	2,200,000	$59,000,000	797,680
13	California	Los Angeles	I10 between La Brea Ave and National Blvd	2.2	2,100,000	$57,000,000	551,720
14	California	Los Angeles	I5 between S Eastern Ave and Euclid Ave	2	2,100,000	$56,000,000	992,160
15	Massachusetts	Boston	I93 between I90 and US1	1.9	2,100,000	$58,000,000	1,980,680
16	California	Oakland	I80 between I580 and Ashby Ave	2	1,900,000	$50,000,000	691,860
17	Washington	Seattle	I5 between Madison St. and Exit 168A	1.6	1,600,000	$45,000,000	619,840
18	New Jersey	New York	I95 between SR4 and Palisades Interstate Pkwy in Fort Lee	0.9	1,500,000	$38,000,000	810,680
19	New Jersey	New York	Pulaski Skyway I95 and Central Ave in Newarkbetween	1.1	1,400,000	$36,000,000	856,960
20	Florida	Miami	Palmetto Expy between 41st St. and Dolphin Expy	1.7	1,400,000	$30,000,000	647,400
21	New York	New York	I678 between Queens Blvd and Liberty Ave	1.4	1,400,000	$37,000,000	512,980
22	Texas	Houston	I610 between Richmond Ave and Post Oak Blvd	1.3	1,300,000	$31,000,000	509,340
23	Illinois	Chicago	I90 Between I55 and W Pershing Rd	1.2	1,300,000	$31,000,000	678,600
24	Georgia	Atlanta	I75/I85 between Freedom Pkwy NE and North Ave NE	1.3	1,200,000	$27,000,000	392,600
25	Texas	Houston	I69/I59 between Hazard St and Buffalo Speedway	1.3	1,100,000	$28,000,000	613,080
26	Virginia	Washington, DC	I395 between Washington Blvd and George Washington Memorial Pkwy	1.1	1,100,000	$27,000,000	322,660
27	Texas	Dallas	Woodall Rodgers Freeway	1.1	1,100,000	$26,000,000	470,860
28	Massachusetts	Boston	I93 between Edge Hill Rd and West St	1.2	1,000,000	$28,000,000	362,700
29	California	Los Angeles	I405 between Burbank Blvd and Ventura Blvd	1	1,000,000	$26,000,000	339,820
30	California	Los Angeles	US101 between SR110 and Alameda St	1	1,000,000	$26,000,000	434,200
31	New Jersey	New York	US1&9 between Wilson Ave and I78	0.8	800,000	$21,000,000	291,720
32	Florida	Miami	Dolphin Expy between 72nd Ave and Palmetto Expy	0.5	800,000	$17,000,000	405,080
33	New York	New York	Brooklyn Bridge	0.9	800,000	$21,000,000	577,460
34	Texas	Houston	US290 between I610 and Mangum Rd	0.9	800,000	$19,000,000	405,860
35	Colorado	Denver	I25 between Santa Fe Dr and S Logan St.	0.8	700,000	$18,000,000	356,980
36	Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	I76 at US1 between City Ave and Roosevelt Blvd	0.8	700,000	$16,000,000	263,120
37	New Jersey	New York	Pulaski Skyway between Tonnelle Ave and Broadway	0.7	600,000	$15,000,000	347,620
38	Virginia	Norfolk	US58 at Martin Luther King Fwy in Portsmouth	0.6	600,000	$16,000,000	210,600
39	Florida	Miami	Dolphin Expy between 17th Ave and 22nd Ave	0.6	500,000	$11,000,000	158,080
40	California	Los Angeles	I10 between I5 and US 101	0.6	500,000	$13,000,000	240,240
41	Virginia	Washington, DC	I495 at the Dulles Toll Road	0.5	500,000	$12,000,000	146,900
42	New York	New York	Long Island Expressway (I495) near I-278 between 58th St and 48th St.	0.4	400,000	$10,000,000	117,260
43	Texas	Dallas	I30 between St. Paul St. and I45	0.4	400,000	$9,000,000	174,200
44	Virginia	Washington, DC	I395 from Duke St to halfway between Duke St and Edsall Rd	0.3	300,000	$8,000,000	83,720
45	Florida	Tampa	I4 between N 22nd St and N Nebraska Ave	0.4	300,000	$7,000,000	191,100
46	Illinois	Chicago	I94 between I90 inter-change and N Elston Ave	0.3	300,000	$7,000,000	106,860
47	Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	I676 between I76 interchange and N 24th St	0.3	300,000	$6,000,000	112,580
48	Texas	Dallas	US75 between N Haskell Avenue and SR366	0.3	200,000	$6,000,000	127,920
49	Georgia	Atlanta	T. Harvey Mathis Pkwy between Johnson Ferry Rd NE and I285	0.3	200,000	$6,000,000	73,580
50	Massachusetts	Boston	I90 from Dorchester Ave to A St	0.3	200,000	$7,000,000	135,720

SOURCE: American Highway Users Alliance