Early morning commuter traffic southbound on the Kennedy Expressway near Kimball. (José M. Osorio/Tribune)

In a confirmation that the worsening traffic aches and pains drivers here feel are real, the Chicago region has shot up to No. 1 in road congestion in the U.S., according to a long-running study of mobility problems choking the nation.

The increasing gridlock on major roadways at almost any hour, any day of the week was measured in 2009, when drivers in many other metropolitan areas caught a slight breather from growing congestion, said the Urban Mobility Report, issued Thursday by the Texas Transportation Institute.

Beyond the time it normally would take for an automobile trip in relatively free-flowing traffic, commuters in the Chicago area, including northwest Indiana, spent an additional 70 hours behind the wheel in 2009, the study said.