Do you waste 25 hours a year in Sacramento traffic? A report says you might
A new report says drivers in Sacramento and surrounding areas spend 25 hours a year stuck in traffic, losing an estimated $460 in time, gas and mileage due to roadway congestion.
The Sacramento area is the 348th most congested urban area in the world, according to the transportation research firm Inrix. That ranking places the California capital in the middle third of the pack of 941 urban areas that researchers looked at for the report. The three most congested cities were Istanbul, Mexico City and Chicago.
Los Angeles came in 10th place, the only California city to crack the top 50.
The researchers said that Sacramento’s morning rush hour speeds slowed in 2025. This year, the average speed drivers nearing their exit in downtown could expect was 16 mph; last year and the year before, it was 17 mph.
The numbers from Inrix were more favorable than those in a similar report published by TRIP in September. TRIP — the nonprofit road information program — found that the average driver in Sacramento and its surrounding cities and suburbs wastes $1,518 and 62 hours of their life sitting in traffic each year. The TRIP analysis included an estimate of additional costs borne by local drivers due to the generally rough condition of roads in the capital region.
Inrix looked at Sacramento-area commute times, including drivers from Davis, Woodland, Roseville, Rocklin, Auburn, Folsom and Elk Grove. One of the busiest corridors, the researchers found, was on Watt Avenue between Interstate 80 and Folsom Boulevard, just south of Highway 50.
California has a goal to shift far more people out of cars and into other modes of transportation, such as public transit or biking; the city of Sacramento has a similar aim to increase “active transportation” trips to 6% by 2030 and 12% by 2045. Such goals have been set in the hopes of cutting harmful emissions that contribute to climate change as well as relieving congestion.
Some of the most expensive projects seeking to relieve traffic — highway-widening projects — have been shown to be ineffective at reducing congestion. A judge in a lawsuit against Caltrans recently wrote that “widening freeways is almost never the best way to solve traffic congestion over the long term.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM.
