Metro Atlanta is 8th worst city for traffic in US, study says

Transportation

May 27th, 2026

Cars on the highway are shown in the foreground while the buildings of downtown atlanta are in the background on an overcast day — Traffic flows in and out of downtown Atlanta on the I-75/I-85 Connector Thursday, May 19, 2016, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Atlanta is parked among the top 10 worst metropolitan areas for traffic in the U.S., according to a new study by Consumer Affairs.

The consumer research-based website analyzed data from the nation’s 50 most populous areas, including factors such as daily hours of congestion, average commute times and fatal car crash rates.

The Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell area ranks eighth, with slightly better traffic than the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area, which placed seventh.

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim came in first with the worst traffic, followed by Washington-Arlington-Alexandria and New York-Newark-Jersey City (73.42).

What makes Atlanta traffic so congested?

The study found that the metro Atlanta area has an average car commute time of 31.2 minutes, an average weekday consumption of 4 hours and 56 minutes, and a fatal car crash rate of 9.64 per 100,000 people.

According to Michael Manville, a professor of urban planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, traffic primarily comes down to the sheer volume of cars on the road, which in itself is a sign of economic prosperity.

“Roads are engineered with a certain volume (of traffic) in mind,” added Madalyn Smith, an urban planner in the Atlanta metro area, in the report. “From the number of lanes on a roadway to the width of each lane, many of these cities were ‘engineered for something much bigger.'”

And despite the idea some urban motorists may have that traffic is inevitable in their area, Smith argues there are ways to avoid it.

“The way to address traffic is to make cars less necessary,” said Smith. “You can really cut out a lot of cars by making shorter trips much more possible (without them).”