Milwaukee has 46th worst traffic congestion in US

According to the National Traffic Scorecard, the Milwaukee region's traffic congestion ranks us 46th among the nation's cities. The national average travel time index is 1.13, meaning a trip takes 13% longer than if there were no congestion. Milwaukee's travel time index is better than the national average at 1.08, which means a trip around here takes 8% longer than if there were no congestion. This is up 1.4% from last year for our region.

The neat thing about the scorecard is that the travel time index is computed for each hour in the day. Can you guess when Milwaukee is most congested? Between 5 and 6 pm on Fridays, of course, like about everywhere else in the nation.

The scorecard also ranks the nation's worst bottlenecks. Our worst, US45 southbound at Highway 100, ranks 1,530th nationally and is congested 16 hours per week with an average travel speed of 19 miles per hour when congested.

The good news? We have only 4% of the total congestion of the worst city, Los Angeles. (LA's travel time index is 1.45.)