Arlington, Virginia — The American Transportation Research Institute has released its 12th annual assessment of the nation's most critical commercial highway bottlenecks, pinning down the exact locations where freight movement grinds to a halt. The latest data underscores a widespread degradation in highway speed and operational efficiency as urban traffic volumes rebound past pre-pandemic levels. For any OTR truck driver navigating these corridors, the findings confirm what daily experience already shows: moving freight through major metropolitan hubs takes longer and burns more fuel than it did just a few years ago.

At the very top of the list, the intersection of Interstate 95 and State Route 4 near Fort Lee, New Jersey, reclaimed the number one spot for the fifth consecutive year. The constant gridlock surrounding the George Washington Bridge remains the single most frustrating hurdle for commercial motor vehicles operating between New Jersey and New York. Behind that top hotspot, regional choke points in Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Nashville round out the top ten worst locations for commercial vehicle throughput, draining productivity from carriers and wearing down drivers stuck in dead stop traffic.

To compile this index, researchers at ATRI mined terabytes of truck GPS data pulled directly from commercial fleets across the United States. Their custom software measures freight movement across more than 300 heavy-traffic corridors, ranking locations by congestion severity. The numbers paint a grim picture for fleet efficiency, revealing that average commercial vehicle speeds dropped by six percent across these monitored zones compared to previous cycles. In ten of the nation's worst bottlenecks, average speeds fell below 30 miles per hour, turning routine cross-town transits into hours-long ordeals.

What This Means for Drivers

For a CDL-A driver trying to log legal miles while battling unpredictable urban congestion, these bottlenecks represent a direct hit to daily earning potential and Hours of Service compliance. Sitting idle on I-294 in Chicago or inching along the I-10 and I-15 interchange in San Bernardino burns through valuable drive time without generating revenue. Fleet managers and owner-operators must factor these persistent delays into route planning and customer rate negotiations to account for lost productivity. When tight delivery windows collide with chronic highway gridlock, stress levels rise and trip predictability drops to zero.

Industry Reaction

Commercial carriers and freight associations continue to press state and federal transportation departments to prioritize infrastructure funding for these specific bottleneck zones. With freight mobility directly tied to national economic growth, industry advocates maintain that targeted highway expansion and bottleneck mitigation projects are essential for maintaining supply chain resilience. As congestion worsens and average speeds decline, trucking companies hiring in these high-volume regions face mounting pressure to compensate drivers fairly for the hours lost idling in traffic.

Key Points

• The intersection of I-95 and SR 4 in Fort Lee, New Jersey, ranked as the nation's number one truck bottleneck for the fifth straight year.
• Average commercial vehicle speeds dropped 6 percent compared to the previous period across monitored corridors.
• Ten of the busiest freight locations in the country recorded average truck speeds below 30 miles per hour.
• ATRI's ranking relies on an extensive database of truck GPS data collected from operations across the U.S.

Looking for a better trucking job? US Trucker's free job-matching service connects CDL-A drivers, OTR drivers, regional drivers, and owner-operators with 500+ top US carriers. Leave your details in the form on this page and a recruiter will call you within one business day. Trucking companies are hiring now.

Photo by CARLOSCRUZ ARTEGRAFIA on Pexels