Another List: Commuter Pain Index

By Marcus Gilmer in Miscellaneous on Sep 4, 2009 2:40PM

So we're already the most stressed city in America and the worst city to drive through on Labor Day weekend. Now IBM has ranked Chicago fourth (tied with Boston) on its "Commuter Pain Index" list. You can check out the full report here [PDF]. We move up from our fifth-place tie with San Francisco last year. Los Angeles is number one, followed by D.C. and Miami. According to IBM's press release, there are 10 factors that go into their list:

Photo by ekovalev

1. Commuting time
2. Time stuck in traffic
3. Value of time
4. Agreement that: traffic has gotten worse
5. start-stop traffic is a problem
6. driving causes stress
7. driving causes anger
8. traffic affects work
9. traffic so bad driving stopped
10. decided not to make trip due to traffic.

Well, great. Do these lists count if being ranked on other lists contributes to the stress?