Metro Denver residents who suspect they’re spending more time stuck in traffic are correct.
Drivers here over the past year faced the fastest increasing traffic delays in the nation, according to a global transportation data firm’s latest analysis. While Denver ranks 15th among the most congested U.S. cities (New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles top the list), the delays increased by 19% between 2023 and 2024.
Drivers on metro Denver roads during 2024 lost an average of 44 hours to traffic jams, up from 37 hours in 2023, the analysis by the Seattle-based company INRIX found. In New York and Chicago, residents lost an average of 102 hours in traffic. In Los Angeles, they lost 88 hours.
The average speed of a vehicle moving toward downtown Denver decreased by about 7% to 13 miles per hour, said Bob Pishue, senior analyst for INRIX and author of a report released Monday morning.
“That’s a pretty rapid change,” Pishue said.
“A lot of restaurants and retail stores have been waiting for this. They want the traffic. Traffic shows there’s growth and activity. On the other hand, it gives us less time with our friends and family. It gives us frustration. It gives us higher costs to move goods and services around.”
The Denver Regional Council of Governments estimates the metro Denver population will increase by 1 million people within 30 years. City and state transportation planners have been wrestling with how to contain traffic, looking to public transit and densification — by encouraging more housing concentrated around bus and train hubs — so that workers don’t have to drive as much.
The INRIX analysis shows that metro Denver traffic delays were typically worst on westbound Interstate 270, South Colorado Boulevard, Pena Boulevard, and northbound I-225 between the interchanges with I-25 and I-70.
Time lost in traffic lowers money and productivity. INRIX analysts calculated the average Denver driver lost $788 a year. Nationwide, they estimated traffic delays over the past year cost the U.S. economy more than $74 billion.
