Your Commute: Going Back to Nowhere

And for those people feeling smug about all those people who were stranded on BART this morning (not that it would be us, of course), here's something to make you feel smug back. According to a new study, traffic congestion increased by 9% over the past year, the biggest jump in congestion since 2000. Traffic congestion had decreased over the past few years due to the sucky economy, but now that the economy is somewhat (somewhat) better, it's getting worse again. It's still not as bad as it was back in the day, when it took us days to get from the city to the Peninsula and the smog from the exhaust fumes caused darkness to fall sometime in the mid afternoon and acid rain burned our skins, but it's getting there.

Even more troubling, the same ole trouble spots are the same ole trouble spots. Part of the study includes the Top 10 Most #1 Congested Spots and nine out of the top ten are repeats from last year. #1 on the list of most traffic-y spots is Westbound Interstate 80 between Hercules and the Bay. To quote Eddie Murphy: "Hercules! Hercules!" Contra Costa County, by the way, saw the biggest increase in congestion as they saw an increase of three thousand daily vehicle hours of delays. Also troublesome is the cluster f---- that is the Bay Bridge (taking three out of the ten spots) as experts expect things to either stay the same or get worse due to the Bay Bridge retrofit. Luckily, once that's fixed, things should be a little smoother. Which should be sometime this century.

After the jump, the Top 10 Worst Traffic Spots (and this is going to our home boys in Newark! We love you dawg! Interstate 580 Rulez!!!!!!!!!!)