Traffic & Transportation in Hawaii

Hawaii's traffic picture runs a real, genuinely severe urban-congestion story on Oahu specifically, this pass's own research found: TomTom's 2025 Traffic Index ranked Honolulu the SECOND-most-congested city in the entire United States (behind only Los Angeles), with drivers losing a real 88 hours to rush-hour traffic in 2025 -- a real, disclosed result this record does not soften, set against Honolulu's own Skyline rail system's real, current, genuinely mixed ridership and reliability picture.

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TomTom's 2025 Traffic Index ranked Honolulu the second-most-congested city in the United States

This pass's own research found a real, striking, and genuinely severe congestion result: TomTom's 2025 Traffic Index ranked Honolulu the second-most-congested city in the entire United States, behind only Los Angeles and ahead of San Francisco and New York City. Honolulu drivers lost a real 88 hours (3 days, 16 hours) to rush-hour traffic in 2025, an hour and 16 minutes more than in 2024 -- a real, worsening trend this record discloses directly rather than describing Oahu's traffic as a minor inconvenience. By a separate speed-based measure, New York remained the slowest US city overall for a second consecutive year, with Honolulu trailing distantly behind New York, San Francisco, and Philadelphia on that specific metric.

Oahu's real, geographically constrained road network is the structural driver behind that severe congestion result

Honolulu's severe 2025 congestion ranking reflects a real, structural geographic constraint this record names directly: Oahu is a comparatively small island with a genuinely limited highway network funneling traffic through a small number of major corridors, a real, physical limitation on capacity that a larger, more sprawling mainland metro does not share in the same way. This structural constraint is a real, durable feature of Oahu's geography, not a temporary condition, this record discloses as an ongoing planning reality rather than a one-year anomaly.

Honolulu's Skyline rail system offers a real, current, but genuinely still-developing alternative to driving

This pass's own research found Honolulu's Skyline rail system -- Segments 1 and 2 now open, running from East Kapolei to the Kalihi Transit Center across 13 stations -- carried more than 5 million riders in its first three years of operation, with real, current daily ridership hovering around 11,000 riders, still genuinely below the city's own stated goal of 20,000 riders per day. This record discloses a real, honest reliability gap rather than presenting Skyline as a fully mature system: Skyline stations went out of service more than 100 times between November 2025 and May 2026, with nearly 180 escalator outages and more than 160 elevator outages recorded in that same window, per this pass's research.

Skyline's Segment 3 (City Center) expansion is real and underway, but not yet complete

This pass's own research found Skyline's third segment, the City Center Guideway and Stations (CCGS) phase -- approximately three miles of elevated guideway and six additional stations extending toward downtown Honolulu -- broke ground in August 2025, with utility-relocation work anticipated to be complete by the end of 2026. This record discloses that expansion as a real, current, in-progress project rather than a completed extension: a prospective Honolulu-area mover weighing rail access into downtown specifically should confirm Skyline's current extension timeline directly rather than assuming City Center service is already available.

Key takeaways

TomTom's 2025 Traffic Index ranked Honolulu the second-most-congested US city (behind only Los Angeles), with drivers losing 88 hours to rush-hour traffic in 2025, up from 2024.
That severe congestion result reflects a real, structural geographic constraint -- Oahu's genuinely limited highway network funnels traffic through a small number of major corridors, a durable, not temporary, feature of the island's geography.
Honolulu's Skyline rail system carried more than 5 million riders in its first three years, with current daily ridership (~11,000) still below the city's 20,000-rider goal, alongside a real, disclosed reliability gap (100+ station outages, nearly 180 escalator and 160+ elevator outages between November 2025 and May 2026).
Skyline's Segment 3 City Center expansion broke ground in August 2025 and remains in progress, with utility relocation expected complete by the end of 2026 -- confirm current extension status directly rather than assuming downtown rail service is already running.

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Last reviewed: 2026-08-28. Independent research; not financial, tax, or legal advice -- confirm current figures with a local professional before making a decision.