Check out our index of the North American cities which will be affected the most by festive congestion.
The festive period can be the most wonderful time of the year. But with potential bad weather combined with a rush of last-minute shoppers, commuting in a city can be a nightmare.
With this in mind, the team at online casino Betway decided to identify which cities in the US and Canada would be most likely to be affected by congestion during this holiday season.
To do this, we analysed average travel time per 10 kilometres, average speed, average congestion level last December, negative online sentiment towards traffic and average December snowfall for each city.
American drivers facing the worst congestion
Perhaps unsurprisingly, New York City ranked as the city facing the worst traffic this December, with a total score of 82.61.
New Yorkers face the longest travel time per 10 km at 31 minutes six seconds, and they have the slowest average speed at 19.3 km/h too. According to TomTom, New York’s congestion level score in December 2024 was 36 which was amongst the highest out of cities in this study.
Additionally, negative online sentiment towards traffic stood at 57%, and The Big Apple was one of the snowier American cities in our study too, with an average of 4.9 inches of snowfall in December.
According to the data, Chicago drivers will be the second most affected by congestion this Christmas. Chicago’s score of 68.6 was down to the city having the third highest time for travel per 10 km (19 minutes 51 seconds) and the third slowest average speed (30.2 km/h).
Chicagoans are clearly frustrated at the current level of congestion in their city. Online negative sentiment towards traffic in Chicago stood at a whopping 61%, only two American cities had a higher negative sentiment. As well as having to contest with wind year-round, in December, Chicago residents can expect 7.4 inches of snow. No US city in the study averages more snowfall over the holidays.
The top 10 American cities facing the worst December congestion can be seen below.
City | Average travel time per 10 km (M.S) | Average speed (km/h) | December 24 congestion level | “Traffic” online negative sentiment | Average snowfall in December (In) | Total score |
New York, NY | 31.06 | 19.3 | 36 | 57% | 4.9 | 82.61 |
Chicago, IL | 19.51 | 30.2 | 30 | 61% | 7.4 | 68.60 |
New Haven, CT | 19.18 | 31.1 | 25 | 54% | 7.2 | 58.01 |
Boise, ID | 16.27 | 36.5 | 26 | 62% | 7.1 | 57.80 |
Miami, FL | 17.40 | 34 | 43 | 56% | 0 | 54.44 |
Boston, MA | 16.51 | 35.6 | 32 | 52% | 5 | 52.79 |
San Francisco, CA | 26.32 | 22.6 | 34 | 42% | 0 | 51.86 |
Denver, CO | 14.26 | 41.6 | 28 | 58% | 6.6 | 51.28 |
Philadelphia, PA | 19.35 | 30.6 | 23 | 57% | 3.5 | 48.26 |
Pittsburgh, PA | 15.56 | 37.7 | 29 | 55% | 4.4 | 47.91 |
Canadian drivers facing the worst congestion
When looking at Canada, Vancouver came out as the city most likely to be affected by Christmas congestion with a score of 67.20.
Vancouver topped the rankings when it came to slowest travel time per 10 km (27 minutes, three seconds), slowest average speed (22.2 km/h), and congestion level score in December 2024 (39).
Despite being top in all these factors, Vancouver residents seem unphased judging by their low negative sentiment towards traffic of just 37%.
Finishing behind Vancouver was Toronto with a score of 63.77. While Toronto didn’t finish worst off in any specific metric, the city had the second highest travel time per 10 km and the second slowest average speed.
The top five Canadian cities facing the worst December congestion can be seen below.
City | Average travel time per 10 km (M.S) | Average speed (km/h) | December 24 congestion level | “Traffic” online negative sentiment | Average snowfall in December (Inches) | Total score |
Vancouver, BC | 27.03 | 22.2 | 39 | 37% | 4.7 | 67.20 |
Toronto, ON | 25.13 | 23.8 | 34 | 50% | 10.0 | 63.77 |
Winnipeg, MB | 23.01 | 26.1 | 35 | 38% | 3.1 | 46.41 |
Montréal, QC | 22.09 | 27.1 | 29 | 50% | 11.7 | 46.33 |
Halifax, NS | 23.31 | 25.5 | 35 | 25% | 7.4 | 45.14 |
So, with Christmas and the holidays upon us, those are the cities which are most likely to be impacted by extra congestion. If you would like to see more content like this, please head over to our blog page!
Methodology
Using congestion data from TomTom, we gathered the US and Canadian cities with already high congestion levels. We then analysed these cities on the following metrics:
– Average travel time per 10 km (Minutes.Seconds)
– Average speed (km/h)
– Average congestion level* in December 2024
– Negative online sentiment in the last 30 days towards “traffic”
– Average snowfall in the month of December (inches)
Each city was then given a normalised score based on how it performed in the metrics above. A higher score meant higher levels of congestion during the holidays!
Travel time, speed, and congestion data was sourced from TomTom, meanwhile negative sentiment data was sourced from Brandwatch.
Data correct as of December 4th, 2025.
*Congestion level is expressed as a percentage, which is representative of the increase in travel time due to excess traffic. For example, a congestion level of 40 means that, on average, journey times across that area’s road network were 40% greater than when traffic is free flowing.
