Context

Recently, TomTom an Amsterdam-based company, published Traffic Index 2018. The latest index ranks 403 cities across 56 countries, including 13 new cities.

About

• According to the Traffic Index report, the top 5 congested cities were Mumbai, Colombian capital, Bogota, Lima in Peru, New Delhi and Russian capital, Moscow.
• For this study, congestion has been defined in terms of the additional time taken to reach a destination as opposed to when the road would have been clear of traffic.
• Mumbai being a most congested city means that the extra travel time is 65% more than an average trip would take during uncongested conditions. For Delhi, by the same yardstick, the extra travel time is 58% more.
• Average times are of actual taken trips, across every vehicle in the entire network, 24/7. This is worked out by establishing a baseline of travel times during uncongested conditions across each road segment in each city; travel times are analysed across the entire year (24/7) for each city.
• The index factors for peak hours, accidents, inclement weather, construction work and all other factors likely to cause disruptions.

Mumbai and Delhi

• In both cities, traffic congestion during morning and evening peak hours varies between 73% and 102%.
• The index found that traffic flows most freely between 2 am and 5 am in both cities.

Around the world

• Nearly 75% of the cities part of the 2018 index had increased or stable congestion levels between 2017 and 2018, with only 90 cities showing measurable decreases.
• Congestion in Jakarta decreased by 8 % points while that in Lima rose by the same number of points.
• Globally, traffic congestion is rising. And that’s both good, and bad, news. It’s good because it indicates a strong global economy, but the flip side is drivers wasting time sitting in traffic, not to mention the huge environmental impact.