If you feel like traffic has gotten worse around the Milwaukee area in recent years, you’re not wrong.
The average Milwaukee commuter spent 57 hours in traffic in 2024, up from 47 hours in 2019, according to Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s 2025 Urban Mobility Report. The Oct. 22 report analyzed 494 areas across the U.S. using data from the Federal Highway Administration and traffic analytics company INRIX.
Milwaukee ranked 42 among the top 101 urban areas for delay per commuter last year. Similarly, the Cream City was also named the 38th highest urban area for total delay in 2024 — with a whopping 51.45 million hours wasted in traffic, up 12% from 2023.
Milwaukee’s congestion uptick follows nationwide trend
Researchers found traffic across the U.S. hit a “record high” in 2024, with Americans spending an average of 63 hours of traffic, a 16% increase from 2019. There was a dip in congestion during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, though researchers note traffic now exceeds pre-pandemic levels for individual commuters…