What is the most congested road(s) in your city/town?

[LM117]

Interstates and other freeways don't count. Anything from surface streets to expressways counts.

In Danville, my vote goes to US-29 Business/Piney Forest Road between Central Boulevard and the VA-41/Franklin Turnpike intersection. Over half the time it's a damn parking lot with some of the worst drivers I've ever seen in my life. The recent opening of a Walmart Neighborhood Market in the Nor-Dan Shopping Center at the corner of Piney Forest Road and Nor-Dan Drive made it even worse. Think Black Friday. US-58 Business/Riverside Drive also blows, though not quite as bad as Piney Forest Road.

When I lived near Goldsboro NC, US-13/Berkeley Boulevard was the worst, though it should be improved soon due to the current widening project NCDOT is doing on Berkeley Blvd between Royall Avenue and South Drive.

[Takumi]

VA 144 east of I-95, easily. Between the mall and traffic heading to Fort Lee, it gets congested in the afternoon quite a bit.

[74/171FAN]

VA 144 east of I-95, easily. Between the mall and traffic heading to Fort Lee, it gets congested in the afternoon quite a bit.

I would pick VA 10 between US 1/US 301 and I-295 actually though the expansion at SR 732 (Old Stage Rd) has helped alleviate that some.

Around Harrisburg,  I would pick PA 230 and US 22  (Cameron St corridor) from Paxton St (intersection always backs up) to Elmerton Ave/Wildwood Park Dr (south end of a US 22 freeway section).  This corridor always seems to have heavy traffic around rush hour plus the PA 230 section is mostly undivided leading to many left-turns blocking traffic.

[7/8]

For Kitchener, a road that's getting busier every year is Fairway Rd. More and more houses are being built on the east end of the city near the Grand River, and a few years ago they opened a new bridge connecting Fairway Rd with Kossuth Rd in Cambridge. The new bridge has added a lot more through traffic to the road, since the only other options are going up to Hwy 7 or down to Maple Grove or the 401.

One part that can be stressful is heading NE from King St to River Rd. There's two lanes heading NE, but it functions closer to 1, because the right lane becomes a right turn lane at River Rd and almost everyone wants to continue straight through. So everyone piles into the left lane so they don't get stuck in the right turn lane at River. But of course, cars often need to make a left onto one of the side streets, so people start moving over to the right lane to get around them. The car eventually makes their turn, and now everyone has to merge back into the left lane. This is when you can see lots of aggressive driving!

The best solution would be to take out the parking in the right lane on Fairway NE of River, so the right lane could converted to a through lane. But I guess more parking would need to built somewhere else, and there isn't any room to do so.

[myosh_tino]

ALL of them.   

[Zeffy]

US 206. Spoiler alert: it's the only state maintained road in this town.

[Jmiles32]

In Northern Virginia my guess would be either VA-28, VA-7, or the Fairfax County Parkway. All of them are either being widened currently or are planned to be. Locally in Gainesville, it's US-29 no contest.

[noelbotevera]

US 30. It's always a parking lot thanks to a commercial strip east of town and most of Chambersburg living not far from it. The drivers are always slow, and thanks to new businesses, it's a real white knuckle stretch. Though I'd think VA 10 was worse while staying in the Richmond area.

[coatimundi]

Highway 68 between the two freeway sections.
A long, two-lane bottleneck that's well-known to local agencies, but wealthy property owners and a restrictive California Coastal Commission have kept it from being properly upgraded. Instead, there have been waves of "intersection improvements" at the various traffic lights, from extra and elongated turn lanes, to restricted turning. What's strange about it too is that it's not one of those where it's crowded in one direction for each rush hour, but it backs up at certain points in different directions at different times of the day. And, instead of upgrading that corridor as they should, it's pushed proposals for new facilities over new ROW, or upgrading other roads that could be, and usually are, used as alternate routes.

[jp the roadgeek]

CT 10 within a mile either way of I-84.  3 supermarkets, Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond,  the whole gamut of fast food restaurants (big 3 burger chains, Taco Bell, KFC, a Subway and Dunkin in both directions, D'Angelo's, and Chic-Fil-A coming soon), casual dining (Chili's, Outback, IHOP, Smashburger, Noodles & Company, Bertucci's, and Panera), and gas stations (including a remaining Hess).

[pianocello]

US 30. It's always a parking lot thanks to a commercial strip east of town and most of Chambersburg living not far from it.

Ditto for NW Indiana. It's used as a thru route, but much of the route in Valparaiso is commercial. It only gets worse the farther west you go, and the Southlake Mall area in Merrillville Hobart is the worst.

[vdeane]

Central Avenue (NY 5) and Wolf Road, easily.

[ET21]

In my suburb, I'd say 95th street. For Chicago, well that's a list 

[jwolfer]

Jacksonville Florida metropolitan area the worst congestion on surface street is Blanding Blvd (SR 21) from the 295 West Beltway into Clay County to Kingsley Ave (SR 224).

Not just rush hour but weekends as well

[Buffaboy]

In the Buffalo metro I believe (95% confident) it is Transit Road, NY 78. North south traffic traveling many miles on this trunk road intermix with local traffic causing heavy backlogs along the way. A widening attempted to mitigate these effects a couple years ago. IMO a highway running a couple miles to the east would alleviate the congestion but I don't know for sure.

Niagara Falls Blvd (US 62) and/or Sheridan Dr (NY 324) comes in second.

[jmd41280]

In Pittsburgh, I would say either Saw Mill Run Blvd. (PA 51) from Lebanon Church Road to the Liberty Tunnels entrance or McKnight Rd. (US 19 Truck) between US 19 and I-279. 

Saw Mill Run Blvd. is 4 lanes, however it is narrow and winding due to being in a valley.  Being that there is no limited access route from the south at this time, it (along w/ PA 88, US 19, and West Liberty Ave.) funnels most of the commuter traffic from the South Hills area and points beyond.  PA 88 (being a significant commuter route in its own right) funnels its traffic onto Saw Mill Run just inside the city limits, adding to the congestion.

McKnight Road is the main commercial strip in the North Hills area (just north of the city proper), plus it is a significant commuter route from McCandless, Wexford and points north.  It varies between 4 and 6 lanes and its congestion has led to its nickname of "McKnightmare Road".

[jlwm]

Around Houston, the best contenders would probably be Westheimer Rd. near the Galleria and again near Beltway 8, Broadway St. in Pearland by Pearland Town Center, Westpark Dr. between US 59 and Fondren, Hillcroft Dr. near Harwin St., and Bissonnet St. between Montrose and Kirby,   

[TheStranger]

19th Avenue/Route 1 in San Francisco, as far as a surface street in that city is concerned,  is consistently busy most days.  Freeway-level traffic due to the fact it is the only way to get to the Golden Gate Bridge without passing through the Marina district or Seacliff...and this was the originally planned 280 corridor north of Daly City before the 1950s/1960s freeway revolts led to the Interstate's reroute onto the Southern Freeway.

Gough Street south of Geary is pretty bad at rush hour, as one of several pathways that leads towards the Central Freeway portion of 101.  If anything, it's a bit busier then than 101 itself (Van Ness Avenue) southbound!

Geary Boulevard west of Masonic Avenue, due to the density of local storefronts, stoplights, and bus traffic, is pretty heavily traveled all the way up to about 36th Avenue in the Outer Richmond.

Montgomery Street south of California Street can be a parking lot at rush hour, due to the stoplight timing at Post/Market and the fact it is the primary southbound corridor out of the Financial District (and very indirectly towards Interstate 80).

[sparker]

In San Jose, it's pretty much "take your pick"!  Heading north out of town, Old Oakland Road gets very congested during the afternoon rush due to locals using it as an alternate to I-880 and I-680 north toward Fremont and Pleasanton.  Due west -- that's simple -- Stevens Creek Boulevard.  Essentially paralleling I-280, it's the "trip-chain" facility of choice due to the fact that it's an endless commercial strip from central San Jose all the way out to CA 85 in Cupertino -- a constant stream of folks getting on & off 280 to do shopping to & from work.  South toward CA 17 heading over the hill to Santa Cruz, it would likely be a tie between Bascom Ave. (east side of the 17 freeway) and Winchester Blvd. (the counterpart on the west side).  Like Stevens Creek, they are packed with commercial establishments for "trip-chain" activities -- as well as alternate routes to the always-packed-during-rush-hour 17. 

Interesting enough, considering the recent spate of development in the Gilroy-Hollister general area, the two surface streets paralleling US 101, Monterey Highway (old 101) and Santa Teresa Blvd (actually a virtual extension of CA 87) rarely see extreme congestion during peak commute hours, even while the US 101 freeway is often at a standstill.  A couple of weeks ago I needed to head down to Gilroy after work to pick up something from one of our tech support folks; I left my office (near Curtner Ave. and CA 87) at 6 pm and got to my destination (right off CA 152, west side of Gilroy) by 6:40.  Monterey Road all the way to San Martin, where I cut over to Santa Teresa -- including the signal-every-couple-of-blocks slog through Morgan Hill.  And this was not the first time I've had to do a rush-hour trip in that corridor -- with similar results every time.  Why that direction has escaped LOS "F" on its major N-S arterials is a mystery to me; I may try to dig up some traffic stats and see how they compare to my experience. 

[TheStranger]

Interesting enough, considering the recent spate of development in the Gilroy-Hollister general area, the two surface streets paralleling US 101, Monterey Highway (old 101) and Santa Teresa Blvd (actually a virtual extension of CA 87) rarely see extreme congestion during peak commute hours, even while the US 101 freeway is often at a standstill.  A couple of weeks ago I needed to head down to Gilroy after work to pick up something from one of our tech support folks; I left my office (near Curtner Ave. and CA 87) at 6 pm and got to my destination (right off CA 152, west side of Gilroy) by 6:40.  Monterey Road all the way to San Martin, where I cut over to Santa Teresa -- including the signal-every-couple-of-blocks slog through Morgan Hill.  And this was not the first time I've had to do a rush-hour trip in that corridor -- with similar results every time.  Why that direction has escaped LOS "F" on its major N-S arterials is a mystery to me; I may try to dig up some traffic stats and see how they compare to my experience. 

I wonder if people out here simply aren't conditioned to advantage of parallel (often older routing) frontage roads, i.e. Junipero Serra Boulevard in South San Francisco is never busy even when 280 north from 380 to 1 is jammed; Bayshore Boulevard from the Brisbane/South San Francisco city limit up to about Alemany Boulevard is rarely ever more packed than the Bayshore Freeway northbound in the morning (though the segment through the Visitiacion Valley portion of San Francisco is littered with stoplights).

I've found that Bryant Street (former US 40/50) tends to work a tad better than the westernmost 1.5 miles of Interstate 80 when heading out towards the Bay Bridge, even factoring in the ramp traffic.

I'm not in the East Bay enough to know if Mission Boulevard/Route 238 ends up having to take some of the overflow from the Nimitz Freeway.  (Not coincidentally, the Mission corridor was planned decades to be a freeway at one point that would have allowed 680/238/580 to be a viable alternate to 880)

[TheHighwayMan3561]

In Duluth, it's Superior St. It's "Main Street", lots of stoplights, lots of diagonal parking spaces.

Minneapolis is probably the Hennepin/Lyndale Avenue "duplex" as they cross over the top of I-94 on the Lowry Hill Tunnel.

[epzik8]

Probably Maryland Route 24 or U.S. Route 1 Business around the retail hub of Bel Air, Maryland which is about 25 miles northeast of Baltimore. The MD-24/U.S. 1 Business intersection contains the Harford Mall and three other shopping centers.

[noelbotevera]

In Pittsburgh, I would say either Saw Mill Run Blvd. (PA 51) from Lebanon Church Road to the Liberty Tunnels entrance or McKnight Rd. (US 19 Truck) between US 19 and I-279. 

Saw Mill Run Blvd. is 4 lanes, however it is narrow and winding due to being in a valley.  Being that there is no limited access route from the south at this time, it (along w/ PA 88, US 19, and West Liberty Ave.) funnels most of the commuter traffic from the South Hills area and points beyond.  PA 88 (being a significant commuter route in its own right) funnels its traffic onto Saw Mill Run just inside the city limits, adding to the congestion.

McKnight Road is the main commercial strip in the North Hills area (just north of the city proper), plus it is a significant commuter route from McCandless, Wexford and points north.  It varies between 4 and 6 lanes and its congestion has led to its nickname of "McKnightmare Road".

That answer kinda surprises me. I thought you'd say Forbes Avenue or Boulevard of the Allies. That place can be a standstill sometimes.

[SD Mapman]

North 27th Street (US 14A) in Spearfish.

Now, most of you'll probably say that South Dakota traffic is three cars at an intersection, and most of the time you'd be right. However, if you hit this road at the wrong time (anytime in the summer really) the traffic gets just as bad as I've seen in some of the big cities I've been through.

[vdeane]

In the Buffalo metro I believe (95% confident) it is Transit Road, NY 78. North south traffic traveling many miles on this trunk road intermix with local traffic causing heavy backlogs along the way. A widening attempted to mitigate these effects a couple years ago. IMO a highway running a couple miles to the east would alleviate the congestion but I don't know for sure.

Niagara Falls Blvd (US 62) and/or Sheridan Dr (NY 324) comes in second.

I think there's a road diet proposal for Sheridan (would take a lane from each direction to make bike lanes).