I live in Seattle and use my internet mainly for gaming. Ping is most important for gaming, speed not so much. Here's some traceroutes.
Seattle:
Tracing route to c-66-150-164-26.internap-seattle.nfoservers.com [66.150.164.26]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms dlinkrouter.hsd1.wa.comcast.net [192.168.0.1]
2 10 ms 11 ms 11 ms 73.99.164.1
3 14 ms 15 ms 11 ms te-0-4-0-9-sur02.tacoma.wa.seattle.comcast.net [68.87.207.37]
4 14 ms 10 ms 11 ms ae-28-0-ar03.burien.wa.seattle.comcast.net [69.139.164.201]
5 31 ms 31 ms 30 ms 68.86.93.237
6 31 ms 31 ms 30 ms he-0-12-0-1-pe04.ashburn.va.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.87.2]
7 28 ms 29 ms 33 ms te0-0-0-12.ccr21.sjc04.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.13.17]
8 30 ms 31 ms 31 ms be2016.ccr22.sfo01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.0.177]
9 32 ms 31 ms 31 ms be2077.ccr22.sea01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.0.242]
10 43 ms 224 ms 220 ms te4-2.ccr01.sea03.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.41.146]
11 32 ms 31 ms 33 ms Internap-Network-Services.demarc.cogentco.com [38.104.124.82]
12 47 ms 38 ms 38 ms border9.po2-40g-bbnet2.sef.pnap.net [63.251.160.83]
13 32 ms 32 ms 31 ms c-66-150-164-26.internap-seattle.nfoservers.com
[66.150.164.26]
Trace complete.
Chicago:
Tracing route to host.colocrossing.com [198.144.179.99]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms dlinkrouter.hsd1.wa.comcast.net [192.168.0.1]
2 10 ms 11 ms 11 ms 73.99.164.1
3 10 ms 11 ms 11 ms te-0-2-0-1-sur03.tacoma.wa.seattle.comcast.net [68.87.206.85]
4 12 ms 13 ms 13 ms ae-28-0-ar03.seattle.wa.seattle.comcast.net [69.139.164.205]
5 17 ms 15 ms 14 ms he-1-4-0-0-11-cr01.seattle.wa.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.95.213]
6 34 ms 31 ms 31 ms he-0-13-0-0-cr01.sanjose.ca.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.85.162]
7 33 ms 34 ms 38 ms pos-0-4-0-0-pe01.11greatoaks.ca.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.87.150]
8 41 ms 41 ms 39 ms xe-9-3-0.sjc10.ip4.tinet.net [213.200.80.165]
9 87 ms 83 ms 80 ms xe-0-1-1.chi11.ip4.gtt.net [89.149.184.1]
10 78 ms 79 ms 79 ms as23353.chi11.ip4.tinet.net [199.229.229.210]
11 80 ms 94 ms 79 ms ae12.cr2.ord6.us.scnet.net [204.93.204.83]
12 81 ms 80 ms 79 ms 72.ae2.ar1.ord6.us.scnet.net [204.93.204.155]
13 81 ms 81 ms 81 ms as36352.xe-2-1-3.ar1.ord6.us.scnet.net [50.31.151.170]
14 80 ms 81 ms 81 ms 10ge-2.fz146.chi1.colocrossing.com [206.217.137.254]
15 80 ms 83 ms 86 ms host.colocrossing.com [205.234.152.250]
16 80 ms 79 ms 81 ms host.colocrossing.com [198.144.179.99]
Trace complete.
Dallas:
Tracing route to 69.174.243.25 over a maximum of 30 hops
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms dlinkrouter.hsd1.wa.comcast.net [192.168.0.1]
2 16 ms 14 ms 11 ms 73.99.164.1
3 11 ms 11 ms 12 ms te-0-0-0-1-ur05.tacoma.wa.seattle.comcast.net [68.87.206.81]
4 14 ms 14 ms 15 ms ae-28-0-ar03.burien.wa.seattle.comcast.net [69.139.164.201]
5 30 ms 31 ms 28 ms he-0-3-0-0-11-cr01.sanjose.ca.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.93.109]
6 40 ms 39 ms 40 ms he-2-14-0-0-cr01.losangeles.ca.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.89.230]
7 74 ms 70 ms 71 ms 68.86.85.150
8 72 ms 71 ms 71 ms pos-0-1-0-0-pe01.1950stemmons.tx.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.86.94]
9 66 ms 71 ms 71 ms 173.167.58.14
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 79 ms 79 ms 75 ms 69.174.243.25
Trace complete.
Seattle use to be 15, Chicago was 65, and Dallas was 60. I know Comcast likes flaunting how it's the biggest ISP in the country. Why can't they get their routing straight then? Any insight on why the routing sucks is appreciated.