The meatgrinder days on area freeways are getting a little easier, according to a new report released this week that compared traffic congestion around the Puget Sound area in 2010 to the previous year.

The greater Seattle area slid from ninth-worst-congested area in the country to 10th on th

e 2010 National Traffic Scorecard, which ranks congestion in the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the country.

The report was published Monday by INRIX Corporation of Kirkland, which collects information for its annual ranking from more than 4 million vehi

cles outfitted with special GPS devices.

Los Angeles was rated the most congested area in the nation, followed by New York and Chicago.

“Traffic congestion in 2010 in Seattle was down slightly,” said Jim Bak, INRIX spokesman. “It was down a little over 1 percent. Traffic congestion nationwide is up 11 percent.”

The report measures congestion by comparing actual travel times to times were there is no traffic. When the traveling speed along a segment of road without traffic is cut in half, it is considered to be congested, Bak said. For instance, if a stretch of freeway is designated as 60 mph but traffic is measured as only going an average of 30 mph, that road, for that time, is considered congested.

State Department of Transportation officials said the report shows that their hard work — and taxpayers’ hard-earned money — is making a difference on the roads.

The officials point to the various aspects of their “Moving Washington” program, a strategic plan that addresses traffic congestion by building or widening roads to add capacity, finding ways to meter or toll existing roads and infrastructure to get more efficiency, and offering more commuting choices in the form of buses and commuter rail.

In Snohomish County, work already is under way to widen Highway 522 in Monroe to four lanes from the 179th Avenue SE overpass to the U.S. 2 interchange, said WSDOT spokeswoman Meghan Pembroke.

Another project is the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center on 236th Street SW, which is set to open March 20. The project is paid for by money from WSDOT, Sound Transit, the Federal Transit Administration and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The Kirkland company’s report echoes an announcement from WSDOT in December that nearly all reported 2010 travel times dropped below 2007 levels. That information was included in WSDOT’s quarterly report, called “The Gray Notebook.”

“In the (Gray Notebook) report there’s a statement about economic factors and the effect economic factors have on congestion,” said Alice Fiman, a WSDOT spokeswoman. “If you look at that comparison we’re the only place (congestion) didn’t go up. We had a small economic decline and a significant traffic decline.”

WSDOT also publishes an annual congestion report that reflects data collected for 52 commute routes in the Puget Sound area, two commute routes in Spokane, and several other state highways. The 2010 report also is in line with the INRIX Corporation report but offers more details specific to the Puget Sound area, Fiman said.

“It really complements (the WSDOT congestion report) well,” she said. “In our Gray Notebook we report on travel times but we also look at the other factors including incident response, operational maintenance and winter operations.”

Quarterly updates on worker safety, work-force levels and training, highway incident response, Washington State Ferries, and Amtrak Cascades are also given in WSDOT’s Gray Notebook.

Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491; adaybert@heraldnet.com.

Most congested areas

1. Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Ana

2. New York, northern New Jersey, Long Island

3. Chicago, Naperville, Joliet

4. Washington D.C., Arlington, Va., Alexandria, Va.

5. Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington

6. San Francisco, Oakland, Fremont

7. Houston, Sugar Land, Baytown

8. Boston, Cambridge, Quincy

9. Philadelphia, Camden, Wilmington

10. Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue

The Seattle area was ranked the sixth most congested area in the 2006 INRIX Corporation National Traffic Scorecard and received the ninth most congested ranking for 2007-2009.