Trucking professionals may debate their pet peeves, from hours-of-service caps to lengthy detention times at customers' DCs. But one earns universal scorn—traffic. The reason for that is no mystery. Congestion costs the trucking industry 1.2 billion hours of lost time a year, according to the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), the research arm of the American Trucking Associations (ATA).
To assess the level of truck-oriented congestion on the nation's highway system, ATRI compiles a list of the nation's biggest chokepoints each year. The rankings, which are based on global positioning system (GPS) data from nearly a million heavy-duty trucks, are intended to support federal infrastructure planning initiatives by identifying the biggest problem areas, ATRI says.
So where is the most notorious chokepoint in the country? According to the 2019 "Top 100 Truck Bottleneck List," it's Fort Lee, N.J.—specifically the intersection of I-95 and SR 4 at the western end of New York City's George Washington Bridge. The rest of the top 10 include:
- Atlanta: I-285 at I-85 (North)
- Atlanta: I-75 at I-285 (North)
- Los Angeles: SR 60 at SR 57
- Houston: I-45 at I-69/US 59
- Cincinnati: I-71 at I-75
- Chicago: I-290 at I-90/I-94
- Nashville, Tenn.: I-24/I-40 at I-440 (East)
- Atlanta: I-20 at I-285 (West)
- Los Angeles: I-710 at I-105
The results point to the need for infrastructure investment, according to Chris Spear, president and CEO of the ATA. "ATRI's research shows us where the worst pain points are—but they are far from the only ones," he said in a statement accompanying the list's release. "Without meaningful investment in our nation's infrastructure, carriers will continue to endure billions of dollars in congestion-related costs—which results in a self-inflicted drag on our economy."
