London is still the world’s slowest city, according to the latest TomTom Traffic Index.
The mapping and navigation company says the average travel time for a typical 10 km (six mile) journey in the city in 2023 was 37 minutes and 20 seconds. This is one minute more than in 2022 and nearly two minutes more than in 2021, which TomTom says indicates a slow but steady return to the pre-pandemic trend of consistently increasing traffic.
It adds that the situation for the average driver who commutes 10 km in the morning and 10 km in the evening, at peak times, is worse still. These drivers spend one hour and 28 minutes in traffic every day, losing about 38 minutes each day to the extra traffic that comes with rush hour busyness.
Dublin, Toronto, Milan and Lima, take second, third, fourth and fifth spots, respectively, when ranked by the average time it takes to drive 10 km across each city.
Ralf-Peter Schäfer, TomTom’s VP Product Management of Traffic, Travel and Routing, says we need to think about traffic beyond cars to solve congestion. “Traffic shouldn’t just be about managing cars or making the situation better for cars, we need more than that.
“The best examples are Amsterdam or Copenhagen, who’ve moved road demand to bikes and pedestrian traffic. This modal-split is something that must happen for the good of our cities. Reducing congestion isn’t about building more roads or rebuilding road networks for cars, it’s about the heart of the city and giving space back to other modes of transport.”
(Picture – Yay Images)
