Honolulu ranks ninth worst in traffic congestion in web study

Honolulu ranked ninth in a recent ranking of 20 cities with the worst traffic by Insurify, a website that compares auto insurance rates.

With a congestion level of 28% and average commute time of 29.1 minutes, Honolulu was not as bad as San Francisco (No. 3), but worse than other cities, including Boston (No. 13) and Portland, Ore. (No. 15).

According to the ranking, 28% of drivers in Honolulu have had prior incidents, which includes speeding tickets or running a red light, while 14.2% have had prior accidents, which includes a collision caused by the driver.

The city with the worst traffic, according to Insurify, was Los Angeles, with a congestion level of 26% and average commute time of 37.7 minutes.

Los Angeles was followed by New York (No. 2), San Francisco (No. 3), San Jose, Calif. (No. 4), and Seattle (No. 5).

Six California cities landed on the top-20 list of cities with the worst traffic.

To rank the top 20 cities, Insurify said its researchers compiled data on congestion using TomTom’s 2018 Traffic Index Ranking. TomTom is a consumer electronics company focusing on navigation technology. Average commute times were from 2017 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Researchers also pulled information on the percentage of drivers in each city with a prior accident as well as the proportion of drivers with a prior incident from Insurify’s database of over 1.6 million car insurance applications.

Nationally, Insurify found that on average, 22.2% of all drivers have at least one prior driving incident, while 12.4% of motorists have a prior car accident. The average commuting time, according to the Census Bureau, is 26.9 minutes.

CITIES WITH THE WORST TRAFFIC

1. Los Angeles

2. New York

3. San Francisco

4. San Jose, Calif.

5. Seattle

6. Miami

7. Chicago

8. Washington

9. Honolulu

10. Atlanta

11. Baton Rouge, La.

12. San Diego

13. Boston

14. Austin, Texas

15. Portland, Ore.

16. Philadelphia

17. Sacramento, Calif.

18. Houston

19. Riverside, Calif.

20. Tampa Bay, Fla.