Forbes lists America's 100 worst intersections

Every city has them; choke points where traffic grinds to a halt. Forbes has compiled a list of the 100 worst intersections in the United States, and as you'd expect, the list is entirely compiled of urban interchanges. New York, Los Angeles and Chicago keep popping up, though other areas like New Haven, Austin and even Honolulu have traffic nightmares to offer. Forbes relied on data from Inrix, a company whose traffic data, culled from commercial vehicle GPS units and state departments of transportation, is facilitating traffic avoidance functionality in GPS units. Ford will be using the predictive routing to keep its new vehicles out of traffic jams, and Garmin and TomTom also rely on Inrix.

One thing the data show is that congestion has dropped. The 30% drop is being attributed to fuel prices and economic difficulties. People drive less when the economy stinks, apparently. Construction projects have jostled some of the listings, as well, with past problems disappearing completely off the list once the newly improved roads are fully opened. According to the Inrix data, your commute could actually benefit from terrible economic conditions, high fuel prices and those much-vaunted shovel-ready stimulus projects.

[Source: Forbes, Photo: nypostmasters.org]