Jacob Vaughn
Audio By Carbonatix
If you don’t think to yourself, “This has got to be the worst road in America,” every time you drive the stretch of the Woodall Rodgers Freeway between West Dallas and U.S. 75, we would recommend you do a sanity check.
It doesn’t matter the time of day or the day of the week you attempted to make that drive; it was almost certainly backed up, and you almost certainly considered whether living in Dallas is all that worth it. The good news is that you aren’t crazy. That strip of freeway that goes under Klyde Warren Park isn’t quite the most trafficky road in Texas, but it’s close.
Each year, the Texas Department of Transportation releases a list of the 100 most congested roadways in the state. The report monitors 2,100 segments of roads, ranging from 3 to 10 miles in length, for traffic delays, which are then ranked by time delay per mile. And while we joked that good old Woodall Rodgers is clogged up no matter the day, the study does actually take that into account to consider things like whether a delay is standard rush-hour traffic or a sign of a larger issue.
By far and away, Houston came out as the most congested city in the state, and for once, we’re happy to let them have the gold medal. Seven of the 10 worst road segments can be found in Houston, the report found, and the top worst stretch, a part of Loop 610 on Houston’s western side, claimed the No. 1 title for the fourth year in a row.
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That aforementioned stretch of Woodall Rodgers, on the other hand, claimed spot No. 3 on the list. In the last year, drivers have spent 1,399,098 hours delayed per mile on that stretch of road. Ouch.
In the past few years, it has toggled between the second and third place, and across the board, the survey found that things are only getting worse. Time delays across all 2,100 road segments monitored by TxDOT went up 4% compared with last year, and for the road segments on the Top 100 list, delays were 24% more likely.
Overall, North Texas made it out of the top 10 OK, with just one Fort Worth mention coming in at No. 8 for I-35W from SH 183 to I-30. Then comes the next set of rankings.
Dallas, congratulations on 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 16th and 17th place. The report found that pretty much every major road around Big D is contributing to millions of hours of delay per mile, with I-30 south of downtown, virtually all of U.S. 75, I-35E and 635 cementing their status amongst the worst in the state, and Dallas’ spot at second-worst below Houston.
While Houston started things out strong, Dallas finished with more than 1/5th of the Top 100 list. Is that depressing? Sure. But at least now, when you’re sitting in traffic, you’ll know everyone else around town is suffering right alongside you.
