Photo by picture prefect

Earlier this month, Jalopnik rated D.C. as the ninth-worst place in the United States to be a car owner. And—surprise, surprise—it’s still a terrible place to drive, according to the latest statistics compiled by the traffic research firm INRIX, reports WTOP.

Washington came in sixth in INRIX’s compilation of 2011 traffic data, trailing just Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Bridgeport, Conn. (And in case anyone is feeling left out, Austin was No. 8 and Chicago rounded out the top 10 of awful cities for motorists, meaning that, in degrees, everywhere in the Istaverse is a horrible place to operate a motor vehicle.)

But there’s a bit of a silver lining. The INRIX study, WTOP reports, found that overall, traffic congestion around the country dropped by about 30 percent thanks to the lousy economy and spiking gas prices. And locally, there’s a bit of hope—in INRIX’s study of 2010 traffic patterns, D.C. ranked No. 4.

Here’s the full top 10 list of the worst cities in the country for driving:

1. Honolulu
2. Los Angeles
3. San Francisco
4. New York
5. Bridgeport, Conn.
6. Washington
7. Seattle
8. Austin
9. Boston
10. Chicago

And if the latest reminder about our eternally clogged roadways is giving you more driver blues, maybe it’s time to suck it up and get that bike. After all, D.C. is the fourth-best city for cyclists, according to a report released yesterday by Bicycling magazine.