The good news is 2008 saw a major decrease in traffic, with drivers in the 100 largest metropolitan areas dealing with a 29% decrease in congestion on average. The bad news is we're seeing it because of an increase in gas prices, which led to less driving and more carpooling, and a decrease in jobs, which led to more people sitting on the couch hoping their unemployment doesn't run out so they can afford to keep their benefits. It's a vicious circle. Much like the pain we're seeing in these community-by-community breakdowns of the most congested intersections in these 20 most congested metro areas.

1. Los Angeles	2. New York	3. Chicago	4. Dallas Fort Worth
5. Washington, D.C.	6. Houston	7. San Francisco	8. Boston
9. Seattle	10. Minneapolis-St. Paul	11. Philadelphia	12. Atlanta
13. Phoenix	14. Miami	15. San Diego	16. Denver
17. Baltimore	18. San Jose	19. Detroit	20. Riverside-San Bernardino

Though traffic does correlate to population rank, with the top four metropolitan areas also in the four worst cities for traffic, there are some anomalies. The Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria area is only the eighth most populous region in the country but is the fifth worst when it comes to traffic due to its high capacity of employment in the area and the lack of good housing stock for middle class families within "The Beltway" area.

Detroit is 11th largest in terms of population but only has the 19th worst traffic situation, primarily because of a 47% decrease in traffic year-over-year due to the economy and dramatic job loss. The collapse of the housing market hit Riverside-San Bernardino, a.k.a. the Inland Empire, hardest of all. The area saw a drop of 57% in traffic congestion, which is almost the same as the 55% drop in median home prices. While there's probably not a 1:1 ratio between the change in home values and congestion, they're likely connected.

Areas less affected by the housing market still experienced decreases in traffic, but at a lower level. For instance, home prices in Dallas remained stable and traffic congestion only decreased by 13% year-over-year, causing Dallas to move up to the fourth most congested city.

Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago are, as expected, still the worst cities for traffic in America. Los Angeles is so bad that peak hour congestion in Los Angeles is twice what it is in Chicago. The combination of a large population and low density makes L.A. even worse than the more populous New York. Compared to the Big Apple, Los Angeles also has fewer mass transit options.

Click on any of the cities above to see their current rank, population, congestion change and worst time of day for traffic. You can also view a gallery of the 100 worst intersections that fall within each city. A look at the hotspots reveal a few similar trends: intersecting highways, two-lane sections with onramps and merging lanes.

If you're reading this post it means you've actually made it home or made it to work. Congrats. There's probably someone still stuck in traffic.

[via Forbes, Google Earth]

While we can't be certain this was the exact scenario posed to off duty Maryland State Trooper Bruce Anthony Wrzosek, 22, we can be certain it's a reasonable assumption of the problem he faced as he sat idling in his marked cruiser. Obviously he couldn't just sit there and wait, so instead he turned on his lights and started yelling at and assaulting people in the cars ahead of him. Things got out of hand and Officer Wrzosek threw a 20-year-old man into the back of his cruiser for some reason. At that point a Baltimore city cop showed up and asked Wrzosek to park his cruiser and get out. Instead he took off with his lights and sirens blaring and took the cops on a brief high speed chase.

After blowing a 0.20 BAC in a field sobriety test Wrzosek was arrested and he's been summarily fired from the force. He's also been charged with kidnapping, second-degree assault, false imprisonment and alcohol-related traffic violations. He's currently being held at Baltimore City Jail on $500,000 bail, but we suspect he'll make a run for the border as soon as possible. [Baltimore Sun]

In city, a reminder of risk in curbside dining [Baltimore Sun]

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Over The Rail: Caprice Cruiser, PT Cruiser Fall 20 Feet Onto Sidewalk [internal]

Baltimore has given us many things. The Orioles, for example. The Colts, too. John Waters! E. Bloom, Richard Hell, Joe Strummer, and John Doe. And now it's about to give us more Subarus. The Fuji Heavy Industries unit is planning to run an additional 31k import and export vehicles across the Maryland city's docks, as according to port officials, "Our geographic location as the closest East Coast port to the Midwest, coupled with our unique auto quality program, continues to give us great advantages over other ports." Good for you, Baltimore. Just don't start fronting like you're the next Pedro. We won't stand for that. – Davey G. Johnson

Subaru to drive more cars across Baltimore's docks [Baltimore Business Journal]

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Cougar Ace Makes It To Alaska, Mazdas Inside Did A Shake n' Bake [Internal]