“Texans know that traffic is bad, and these ratings shifts won’t change public opinion. The list is important for planning purposes,” Lomax noted, “but most of the same highways are still in the top tier of most congested.”

The annual list pinpoints traffic hotspots in the state, a critical asset for transportation planners when prioritizing roadway and transit projects.

TTI has long distributed reports on congestion levels throughout the nation, including traffic problems in Texas. But the new methods used in the last two analyses are on the cutting edge of traffic congestion measurement.

To gather actual travel speed data, TTI contracted with NAVTEQ, a firm that collects real time travel information nationwide and provides that information to a variety of companies for use by the public through GPS units and smart phone applications. Through the contract, TTI received actual speed data for roadways across the state for 2010 to use with traffic volume data to assess the extra time that Texans spend in stop-and-go traffic.

TxDOT first published a 100 most congested roadways list in 2009 at the direction of the Texas Legislature.

The updated 100 most congested roadways list, additional information about methodology and plans for addressing congestion problems are available at www.txdot.gov.