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Charlotte First In Worst Traffic In North Carolina

Charlotte's roads are jammed, but the McCrory administration says the state's new road funding formula will help.
David Boraks
/
WFAE

The 2015 Urban Mobility Scorecard has ranked Charlotte first in the state in all the categories it tracks. And that's not good news.

If Charlotte was to get a trophy for this ranking it would be shaped like an idling car. The annual urban mobility scorecard ranks how much time average commuters spend in traffic and how much gas is consumed while you’re stuck in gridlock.

Last year, the average Charlottean spent 43 hours stuck in traffic, an hour longer than the national average. And they spent $963 worth of extra gas while their cars and trucks crept along or idled on roadways. That too is above the national average.

In comparison, Raleigh drivers spent $734 on extra gas and 34 hours waiting in traffic.

But there is good news, or shall we say it could be worse. Topping the list again is Washington DC where drivers spend more than 80 hours in traffic.

Tom Bullock decided to trade the khaki clad masses and traffic of Washington DC for Charlotte in 2014. Before joining WFAE, Tom spent 15 years working for NPR. Over that time he served as everything from an intern to senior producer of NPR’s Election Unit. Tom also spent five years as the senior producer of NPR’s Foreign Desk where he produced and reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon among others. Tom is looking forward to finally convincing his young daughter, Charlotte, that her new hometown was not, in fact, named after her.