Mexico City is 'Most Traffic Congested City' in world
Drivers in the Mexican capital can expect to spend on average, 59% extra travel time stuck in traffic anytime of the day, and up to 103% in the evening peak periods.
Mexico City has taken the top spot as the city with the most traffic congestion, according to a new report. Drivers in the Mexican capital can expect to spend on average, 59% extra travel time stuck in traffic anytime of the day, and up to 103% in the evening peak periods versus a free flow, or uncongested, situation — adding-up to 219** hours of extra travel time per year, per the results of the TomTom Traffic Index 2016 released by TomTom (TOM2).
Next in the rankings are Bangkok (57%), Istanbul (50%), Rio de Janeiro (47%), and Moscow (44%), making up the top five most congested cities in the world.
Using data from 2015, the Traffic Index looks at the traffic congestion situation in 295 cities in 38 countries on six continents — from Rome to Rio, Singapore to San Francisco. TomTom works with 14 trillion data points that have been accumulated over eight years.
Congestion Up, Globally Looking at the company’s historical data, it’s clear that traffic congestion is up by 13% globally since 2008. But, interestingly, there are shocking differences between continents. While North America’s traffic congestion has increased by 17%, Europe as has only increased by 2%. It could be suggested that this points to economic growth in North America, and Economic depression in the rest of Europe. This European figure could be heavily influenced by Southern European countries such as Italy (-7%) and Spain (-13%) where there has been a marked drop in traffic congestion in the past eight years.
“We really want everybody to think about how they can lower the amount of time they waste in traffic every day – and to realise that we all need to play a part," said Ralf-Peter Schaefer, VP TomTom Traffic. "If even just five percent of us changed our travel plans, we’d improve travel times on our major highways by up to thirty per cent***. Collectively, we can all work together to beat traffic congestion.”
TomTom
People can find out more about the TomTom Traffic Index, and discover where their home city ranks at www.tomtom.com/trafficindex. There’s also helpful advice on beating traffic congestion, as well as independent analysis. And, for the first time, a selection of ‘Profile Cities’ provide insight into what they are doing to improve mobility.
Ranking of the most congested cities globally in 2015 (Overall daily congestion level – extra travel time – population over 800,000):
1
Mexico City
59%
6
Bucharest
43%
2
Bangkok
57%
7
Salvador
43%
3
Istanbul
50%
8
Recife
43%
4
Rio De Janeiro
47%
9
Chengdu
41%
5
Moscow
44%
10
Los Angeles
41%
Ranking of the most congested cities in Europe in 2015 (Overall daily congestion level – extra travel time – population over 800,000):
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1
Moscow
44%
6
London
38%
2
Bucharest
43%
7
Marseille
38%
3
Saint-Petersburg
40%
8
Manchester
37%
4
Warsaw
38%
9
Athens
36%
5
Rome
38%
10
Paris
36%
Ranking of the most congested cities in North America in 2015 (Overall daily congestion level – extra travel time – population over 800,000):
1
Mexico City
59%
6
Seattle
31%
2
Los Angeles
41%
7
San Jose
30%
3
San Francisco
36%
8
Honolulu
29%
4
Vancouver
34%
9
Toronto
28%
5
New York
33%
10
Miami
28%
*Since 2008 when TomTom’s records started
** Extra travel time during peak hours compared to an hour of driving during free flow conditions, multiplied by 230 working days per year
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