We get a million PR pitches to the inbox on a daily basis, but this one stood out: “I-95 Is the Pennsylvania Rush Hour Route Most Likely to Prompt Commuters to Rethink Their Lives.” The blurb:

#1 I-95 (Philadelphia, Betsy Ross Bridge to Broad Street)

Philadelphia’s segment of I-95 along the Delaware River is a commuter horror, particularly the stretch hugging downtown from the Betsy Ross Bridge down past the sports complex. Chronic construction, merging on-ramps, and sheer volume make it a corridor of frustration. In the evening rush, northbound can be brutal as folks leave Center City, and in mornings southbound grinds as Jersey drivers come in over the bridges. While idling here, you might consider relocating: “If I lived in Fishtown or Northern Liberties I could bike or El-train and skip this.” 

#2 I-76 Schuylkill Expressway (Philadelphia)

The Schuylkill Expressway is so infamously congested it’s basically part of Philly’s identity. This narrow, winding stretch of I-76 along the Schuylkill River is consistently ranked the most congested highway in Pennsylvania​. In rush hour, “the Surekill,” as locals grimly joke, can turn a 10-mile drive into an hour-plus ordeal. You might debate, “Why do I live in a place where I willingly subject myself to this daily torture?” . 

Some spot in Yinzerville was third.

But yeah, I don’t know. Like you, I’ve wasted at least a year of my life on both the Schuylkill and 95, banging the steering wheel in frustration like Samir Nagheenanajar from Office Space. The Schuylkill is way worse. It’s eight lanes down to six, down to four, squeezed between a mountain and a river, connecting the nation’s sixth-largest city to Pennsylvania’s third-largest county by population. You bottleneck immediately coming west out of Manayunk. The on ramps and off ramps are basically ten feet long. You’re hugging the wall while some asshole is trying to pass and another car has come to a complete standstill trying merge at Girard. One accident or disabled vehicle and you’re going nowhere for 30 minutes at least.

The thing that plagues 95 isn’t the road itself, it’s the construction taking place in perpetuity. On the uber-rare chance they aren’t working on something, or closing down the Aramingo exit for 17 years, then it’s a decent enough ride. It’s wide. There are more lanes than the Schuylkill. There are more opportunities to get off and skirt through the River Wards and other spots. And the stretch between the Walt Whitman and Ben Franklin Bridges really isn’t bad at all. That doesn’t get backed up nearly as often as other spots throughout the area.

If the question was about shitty Philly/NJ roads in general and not rush hour, I’d rank the Schuylkill first, Roosevelt boulevard second, then the bottleneck in South Jersey coming over the Walt and going south towards the shore. Terrible.


But anyway, here’s how they did the poll:

Potamkin Hyundai ran a poll of 3,004, asking drivers one simple question: which rush hour stretch makes you rethink your whole life?

Methodology: Online panel survey …based on age, gender, and geography. We used a two-step process to ensure representativeness through stratified sampling and post-stratification weighting. February 2025.

Mother shit, son of an ass!