New Jersey is a famous commuter hub, with the area around the George Washington Bridge an iconic element in that. The drive to the bridge can be especially brutal, a fact that’s been established by the American Transportation Research Institute for five consecutive years. Once again, the intersection of Interstate 95 and Route 4 in Fort Lee is ranked first among the nation’s top truck bottlenecks in the association’s 2023 list. Would that only truck drivers were slowed by the bottleneck. But, of course, it ensnares drivers of vehicles large and small alike.  

How was the ranking arrived at? ATRI sorts the worst roads for traffic, using a database of truck GPS data at freight-significant locations throughout the country. It’s not just out of curiosity; the goal for these studies is to understand the level of investments that need to be made, according to the summary of this year’s rankings. 

“The information provided through this research empowers decision-making in both the private and public sectors by helping stakeholders better understand how congestion and delays constrain mobility on the U.S. highway transportation system,” the summary said. “ATRI’s annual bottleneck list provides a clear roadmap to guide investment decisions as the nation capitalizes on the new Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to address the nation’s supply chain challenges.” That’s small comfort to anyone who’s got no way around the GWB crawl.