In something of a Pyrrhic victory for Boston drivers, the city improved its standing in a 2025 ranking of the most congested urban areas — even as the average Bostonian spent a whopping 83 hours languishing in traffic .

Boston traffic now ranks fifth worst in the U.S. and 12th in the world, according to the latest Global Traffic Scorecard from transportation analytics company INRIX. While the city’s global standing remains unchanged from 2024 , Boston managed to drop from last year’s fourth-place spot among U.S. cities.

Compared to last year, INRIX found that Boston drivers lost an additional four hours to traffic jams in 2025, costing about $1,529 per driver. Those 83 hours would be more than enough to log two full-time workweeks, or to watch the entire extended-cut “Lord of the R

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