Latest Results: Who’s Winning the Traffic Game During Soccer’s Biggest Tournament?

StreetLight is analzing notable traffic trends around three U.S. stadiums during the 2026 World Cup to understand how congestion is evolving in L.A., New York/New Jersey, and Kansas City.

During the World Cup, game play isn’t exclusively on the field. Outside the walls of the stadiums, transportation agencies in host cities have been running drills for months, deciding how to handle an extraordinary and prolonged traffic surge day-of-the-event.

The World Cup poses a unique challenge for traffic management for a few reasons:

• quantity of games 
• popularity of fan gatherings 
• differences in fan behaviors 
• outcomes of matches as tournaments progress  
• and an influx of international visitors unfamiliar with local systems.

(Watch our recent webinar to see how traffic is developing at a World Cup host city airport given the expected surge in air travel.)

As with any mega-event, no historical event provides an exact match for travel behavior at the next event. With this in mind, StreetLight is using our real-time Traffic Monitor to capture how traffic is developing at three of the U.S. cities hosting matches.

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Fan fests have been a particularly important aspect of World Cup games, allowing fans to celebrate their teams and watch the game throughout the city, whether or not they have a ticket. But they also add an additional nuance to traffic management.

In Kansas City, on Thursday June 25, the Netherlands faced off against Tunisia, and the game day celebrations commenced with a one-mile plus walk to the official FIFA Fan Fest. The march shut down traffic on two main corridors for about 2.5 hours, creating additional traffic volume on nearby roads.

Then when it came to traveling from Fan Fest to the game drop off location, travel times peaked at 42 minutes, compared to typical travel times of just under 18 minutes. Peak congestion occurred between 4:30-5:15 ahead of the 6PM kick off.

Queuing was significant, and for the last 4.5 miles into the stadium along I-70, queues backed up along 3.4 miles of it, adding 23+ minutes of travel time.

In the case of L.A., a sprawled city with a complex transportation network, transportation agencies are directing much of their resources to transit as the action plan for managing congestion chaos. With SoFi stadium located in Inglewood near some of Southern California’s most traffic-snarled freeways and limited parking on-site, agencies are investing in express buses around the city and enhanced Metro service to the game, among other strategies. Transit agencies are also providing service to fan events and watch parties throughout the city. Locals and those traveling for other purposes have been warned to expect heavy traffic, with road restrictions and parking controls put in place to help manage flow.

L.A., which will host the 2028 Olympics, has been vocal about treating the World Cup as a dress rehearsal for managing traffic during the upcoming international multi-week event.

So how did traffic flow before, during, and after Friday’s game, and what can L.A. and other host cities learn from the first U.S. match up?

Traffic was significant, of course. Congestion began building around noon, 6 hours ahead of the game, which likely played a role in an opening ceremony that looked only half-attended. Fans reported additional security challenges getting inside the stadium ahead of kick off.

Still, traffic was considerably worse in the hours after the game ended. Traffic appeared largely resolved by 11PM, although the game was over by 7:50PM.

After the U.S. Men’s National Team game on Friday, June 12th, travel times along West Century Boulevard and Manchester Avenue near SoFi showed 1 hour+ travel times to go about 5 miles. Compare that to a week earlier at the same time on Friday, June 5th, when travel times were only 21 minutes, while typical free flow is only 11 minutes on that same corridor.

We also looked at MetLife Stadium in New York/New Jersey to understand how traffic at a recent World Cup game, where travel times were 7x longer than typical, compared to traffic during the Eras Tour, finding that the World Cup delays far surpassed those experienced during a 2023 Eras Tour concert at the same stadium.

Agencies and organizations in cities including L.A., Dallas, Philadelphia, Kansas City, and more are using Traffic Monitor to manage World Cup traffic and its broader impacts on the roadway network before, during, and after the games. Agencies across North America can leverage the real-time data feed alongside historical data to:

• get a bird’s eye view of traffic as it develops
• zero in on any areas of concern
• identify surprise disruptions and their impact on the broader network
• conduct after-action reporting
• and iterate on management strategies as new insights emerge.

To leverage real-time traffic insights for special events in your region, reach out to our team here.