SEATTLE — Seattle is among the top 10 worst big cities in North America for traffic congestion, according to 2018 data released Tuesday from location technology company TomTom.
Although TomTom found the congestion level in Seattle remained the same from 2017, its ranking actually worsened from ninth to eighth worst in North America. Last year it ranked fifth worst in the United States.
In 2018, TomTom found Seattleites faced a 31% congestion level, meaning drivers typically spent 31% more time in the car than an average trip without traffic.
The report focused on weekday peak time congestion, which unsurprisingly added a significant amount travel time. For a 30-minute trip during morning and evening peak times, drivers could expect travel times to spike by 16 and 20 minutes, respectively.
The worst times to travel were during peak times on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday when drivers could face anywhere from 60-73% congestion levels. Congestion was at its worst on Thursdays at 5 p.m. when drivers spent 73% more time in traffic than normal.
Looking to avoid traffic? Your best bet is to travel before 6 a.m. or after 7 p.m.
And for all the hubbub about holiday travel, TomTom actually found that Christmas Day had the lightest traffic last year with just a 2% congestion level on average.