Everyone knows Los Angeles has the most miserable traffic. Didn’t all those people at the beginning of La La Land look just totally miserable? But just because you don’t live on the West Coast doesn’t mean you don’t suffer from chronic congestion or arterial blockage.
Traffic in the U.S. is only getting worse. The average American motorist loses 50 hours of their life a year commuting. Motorists in Atlanta, the number fourth most congested U.S. city behind L.A., New York and San Francisco, waste 71 hours in gridlock.
Washington, D.C. is ranked sixth at 61 hours and Dallas is ranked seventh with 59 hours.
Drivers in Seattle, ranked 10, and Houston, ranked 11, average more than 50 hours in traffic.
If you can’t deal with traffic congestion, consider moving someplace like Macon, Georgia, Little Rock, Arkansas, Knoxville, Tennessee, or Boise, Idaho, where motorists lose around 10 hours. In Bangor, Maine, and Greensboro, North Carolina, drivers only lose four hours.
No matter where you live, everyone gets in a jam from time to time. Here are some things to keep in mind next time you do:
-Health professionals urge you to keep your anxiety in check.
-Being late to work due to traffic will likely be forgotten shortly after your arrival.
-Resist the urge to constantly inch your car forward or crane your neck to see what’s causing the problem ahead. Obsessing won’t make the cars in front of you move any faster.
-Relax, breathe, listen to music, an audiobook or a podcast to pass the time.
-You could try to avoid the whole mess in the first place. Download a crowd-sourced traffic app, like Waze, on your smartphone to find the clearest route.