Northbound motorists approach Downtown Jacksonville on Interstate 95. | Bill Bortzfield, Jacksonville Today
Published on October 26, 2023 at 11:36 am
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Never mind what you’ve heard about traffic in L.A. and New York. A new study says Jacksonville has the third-worst commute in the country.
Only Nashville, Tennessee, and Charlotte, North Carolina, are worse, according to the study released Thursday by Forbes Home.
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Forbes rated the 25 largest cities based on the average time spent commuting, access to public transit, walkability, bikeability and the percentage of workers in each household without a car.
Jacksonville’s average commute time was pegged at 25.6 minutes, far from the worst. But the city was marked down for walkability (it was the worst) and mass transit (it was second-worst).
Commuting has grown as a concern as people return to the workplace after the pandemic, the Forbes study said. Working from home dropped 18% in 2021 and 15.2% in 2022. Today, 74% of Americans commute to work, still much less than the 90% in 2009, according to the Brookings Institution.
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After Jacksonville, Houston and Washington, D.C., have the worst commutes. the Forbes study found. New York is sixth and Los Angeles eighth.
Forbes noted that jacksonville gets 120 days of rainfall per year, 11 more than the national average, which could make driving less safe. The study also pointed out that Jacksonville drivers have been judged the worst in the U.S.
A study in March by Clever Move, a website that tracks moving companies, listed Jacksonville drivers as the worst and New York drivers as the best. The ranking was based on average annual traffic fatalities, alcohol-related fatalities, days of precipitation, vehicle insurance premiums and percentage of uninsured drivers, among other factors.
Jacksonville had the highest number of alcohol-related traffic deaths at 2.9 per 100,000 residents -- 66% more than average, the study said.
Florida was labeled the worst state for drivers. Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa all ranked among the worst five.
