I spend a little over a month in Portland, OR and found traffic to be very light compared to my area. Even when there were reports of 'heavy' traffic, it was much lighter than DC metro.

I'm not sure about the cost of living in Atlanta, but often that's the reason why people do not live in the "city". When I lived in Alexandria, VA I cursed my commute but couldn't afford to live in DC. Then I got a job in another suburb of VA and my commute was even worse because I had to travel the Capital beltway for about 15 miles.

Christy1- I know, I know, I would make the situation worse by moving to the suburbs and commuting to the city. But I don't think I could live inside of a big city. I admit I haven't travelled as much as a lot of other people have, but I don't know of that many cities that have an abundance of forest and wooded lots within their centers. Plus, it would drive me crazy to hear cars passing under my apartment all night long. However, if I could find a pristine, wooded city without a lot of cars, then I would live closer to the center of it.

I agree with a previous post about San Diego. I've been there twice and am amazed about how easy it was to get around considering it is one of our 10 largest cities. Even the interstate's at rush hour were not horrible. I'm not sure how they do it but it should be copied and used in every metro area.BTW I know it is not because of public transportation because my sense was people who live there drive themselves. If I were to move this would be my first choice for a large city and traffic would be just a small part of the decision.

Yup, I agree with Rochester NY. We moved from Boston and it is great here. If you can find a job in Roch, you won't have ANY trouble getting to it (from a great, cheap house no less!). Are the winters fun? No, but we don't have hurricanes, tornadoes, or earthquakes either.

I live in San Diego and think the traffic here is horrendous. The freeways are always crowded and so are the streets. In my mind, the traffic has gotten as bad as Los Angeles.

Funny, I never had a problem with Atlanta traffic. But then I lived in a nice house in Midtown and worked downtown and took the bus.

Now Freaknic was another matter . . .

In NYC traffic is a non-issue for most commuters. The subway is wonderful - I finish a book about every two weeks. There's tons of commuter rail lines and express buses and ferries from the 'burbs. I believe there are four people in my office (out of 150 or so) who actually drive in every day.

I refuse to live anywhere where I'd have to drive through awful traffic to get to work.

Kansas City has one of the countries lowest ratios of vehicles to freeway miles. Traffic is not even in the same class as other metro areas where I have lived.

The down side is there isn't much public transit infrastructure, because so few people want to use it.

Keith

I don't drive everywhere in the USA so I can't compare all, but can honestly say that it has become exponentially worse where I am in Chicagoland. It is almost beyond endurance and into places that are 50 miles away. No amount of trains, buses, new roads etc. seem to improve the situation. It's almost gridlock all the time- rush hour is no longer a time period as people are doing reverse communtes and its 24/7 bumper to bumper by me. Joliet outskirts meet Chicago Suburban outskirts meet IN. The spaces are almost all gone.

In MI, even in the larger towns like Kalamazoo or Grand Rapids etc. I feel like I'm the only one on the road in comparison. I'm ready to leave because of this factor alone, as I love the cold weather when it comes.

It is not Chicago. Detroit is bad too, but not as bad. Atlanta was TERRIBLE- not as dense but faster and out of control. All of Florida, much lighter traffic but WORST traffic because of the crazy drivers. Boston was bad.

Ironic- we even got stuck in traffic jams in Sedona & in the Napa Valley while going to wine taste.

Milwaukee was very much lighter and drivers' from WI drive much slower.

It's true you won't find vast extents of "pristine" forests in any big city, but there are plenty of cities where single family homes are the norm (esp. Western cities) and that have beautiful parks and greenbelts. I've never lived in an apartment on a busy road in all my years living in the city.
In any case, maybe you can find a rural area you like that has access to mass transit on the periphery of the urban area? Then at least you can be productive or relax (reading, etc) on your commute.

I really think this depends on your occupation. Obviously people commute to where the jobs are. If you can be self-employed, you can think commute free. Some jobs lend themselves to more remote areas. Perhaps you should think about changing your job in order to change your commute.