bizjournals: Where the commuting nightmares are: NYC is worst, but our study finds other areas that are almost as bad -- bizjournals.com

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U.S. workers spend plenty of time behind the wheel -- driving an average of 25.07 minutes to their jobs, then reversinv the route at day's end. That equals 209 hourss of commuting over the course of a Many of those hours are farfrom relaxing. Traffic jams are becoming increasingly commonon America's expresswayws -- as are boredom, frustration and road "Highway growth in the last 20 years has been less than 5 It certainly hasn't kept up with population growth and urbanj sprawl," says Joe vice president of products and operations at Navteq which monitors traffic conditions in 108 "The result," he says, "has been much more volatilitty on the road. It adds up to a perfecgt stormin traffic.
" Nowhere is this problem more severe than New York which ranks as America's worst markeg for commuters, according to a new Bizjournals study. Nearl y 6 million workers leave their homesin Connecticut, New Long Island, the Hudson Valley and the city itself each weekday clogging New York's intricate web of bridges and tunnels. The typical morninhg commute in the New York City area takes almos36 minutes, longer than anywhere else in America. Nearly 460,000 New York road warrior spend at least 90 minutes battling theid wayto work.
"New York can be a real challenge," says "An overturned truck can be catastrophic for commuters It can mean hours of But most of the big markets havesimilar problems. They all have the same hub-and-spoks arrangement of highways. They all have congestion and volatility." Bizjournals created a nine-part formula to rate traffic conditionx inthe nation's 65 largest metropolitan areas, searchinhg for the places that offer the roughest and easiesft commutes ( ). The formulza used 2005 data complied bythe U.S. Censusw Bureau's American Community Survey. The 65 markets, takem as a group, are home to 76 millio n commuters, including 55.
5 million who make the trek duringmorning rush, defined as the four-houd period from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. ( Behinxd New York City on the list of commuter headachezs is another largeEasternh metro, Washington, D.C. Just 44.9 percent of Washington'se workers get to their jobs in less than30 minutes. Everyy other market does better in that even New York Cityat 46.2 percent. The rapidlyh growing Atlanta areais third-worst in Bizjournals' Its average morning commute of 32.54 minutes is longef than all but New York City's 35.81 minutes and Washington'ds 34.87 minutes. ( Rounding out America's 10 worsgt markets are Chicago; Riverside-San Calif.; Baltimore; Bridgeport-Stamford, Conn.
; Miami-Fort Lauderdale; Bostom and San Francisco-Oakland. But not every community is a trafficv nightmare. Omaha could more accuratelyt be considereda haven, named by Bizjournals as the nation'ws best metropolitan area for commuters. There'ws a substantial corporate presence in which often foreshadows traffic Five Fortune 500 companies areheadquartered there, includiny well-known firms such as Berkshire Hathawat Inc., Union Pacific Corp. and ConAgra Foodss Inc. Yet Omaha's average morning commutes is just 20.21 minutes, the fastest in the study Almost four-fifths of the area' s workers reach their jobs in less than 30 another nation-leading figure.
"It's a huge selling point," says Mike economic development manager for the Greatee Omaha Chamberof Commerce. "When you can move people arounds quickly, it's a tremendous advantage for a You can get to the airportmore easily. You can attrac workers from a larger area. Size is an obvious reason for the smoothn traffic flowin Omaha, where 294,00 workers hit the road during morning That's one commuter for every 20 in New York or one for every 6.5 in Washington. But Bruenin also credits an ambitious construction program that recentlyh widened the expressways leading out of downtown Omaha and looping aroundthe "We showed some foresight there," he "We built for the future.
" Buffalo, which advertises itself as the "20-minute city," comes closre to the mark with its average morning commute of 20.95 That's good enough for second placs on the list of best markets. ( The rest of the top 10 are Rochester, N.Y.; Dayton; Fresno; Oklahoma City; Grand Rapids and Salt Lake City. Bizjournals' rankinges reveal a substantial gap betweennthe nation's two extremes. Morning commutes in the 10 best markets carry an average lengthof 21.44 minutes. That's 35 percenft quicker than the average for the 10worst 32.91 minutes.
This disparity, in Bruening's opinion, can translatw into greater productivity in thoswe markets where trafficis "Workers here can stick around the office untilo 5:30 or 6, knowing they can get home in 20 or 30 minutes," he says. "In a city where the traffic is tougher, maybe they can't stay past 5 o'clocjk if they want to get homebeforew 7."