PORTLAND, Ore. — In news that probably won't surprise anyone who lives in Portland, traffic in the Portland metro area ranks among the worst in the United States, according to a new report.
ConsumerAffairs evaluated three key traffic measures — congestion, travel times and fatal crashes — for 49 major U.S. metro areas and combined those factors to determine an overall traffic score. The report found that Portland's traffic is the seventh-worst in the country, behind Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Seattle, San Francisco, New York City and Denver.
The average daily congestion in Portland of 6 hours, 36 minutes is fourth-highest in the country and the biggest reason for Portland's placement at No. 7 on ConsumerAffairs' list. Only Los Angeles (7 hours, 55 minutes), Seattle (6 hours, 50 minutes) and Washington, D.C. (6 hours, 45 minutes) have worse average daily congestion than Portland.
The data isn't quite as bad for average commute time and fatal crashes in Portland.
The report found that Portland's average commute time is 25.0 minutes, which ranks in the bottom third of the list (35 out of 49 major metro areas) and below the national average. The metro area with the highest average commute time is Washington D.C. (32.7 minutes).
Portland's fatal crashes per 100,000 people (10.2) ranks 31st on the list and is also below the national average, according to ConsumerAffairs. The metro area with the highest number of fatal crashes per 100,000 people is Memphis, Tennessee, with 33.3 per 100,000 people.
The number of traffic deaths in Portland has been on the rise, though. In 2023, there were 75 traffic fatalities in Portland, including 27 pedestrians. That was up from 68 in 2022 and the deadliest year on record since 79 people died in traffic crashes in 1986, according to the Portland Police Bureau (PPB). There have been 44 traffic-related fatalities since the start of 2024, PPB reports.
