The scientists have spoken: Baltimore may not have one of the top-five worst commutes in the nation (those awards go to LA, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Dallas-Fort Worth, in descending order of awfulness), but we still make the list of America’s Highways from Hell, according to the Daily Beast. The corridor in question?
Yep, it’s the 5.3 mile stretch of the Baltimore Beltway Inner Loop/I-695 Northbound from US-1 to Southwestern Boulevard to Security Boulevard. The worst time to drive this stretch is Thursdays from 5 to 6 p.m., when gridlock will add an extra 6 minutes to the normal commute time. Which doesn’t sound all that bad, at first — until you start adding it up. As the Daily Beast points out, even an extra 10 minutes in the car compounds quickly, and soon enough you’ve spent the equivalent of an entire workweek getting frustrated in your car.
The upside: nationwide, traffic dropped 30 percent over the last year, thanks to rising fuel costs and the completion of stimulus road construction projects. Still finding yourself stuck in a long line of cars? You could always pull this trick. Or maybe just download a few good podcasts.
