World's most congested cities

[iheartthed]

It's time for a congestion pricing price hike in London:

10 Most Congested Cities in the World in 2022

1. London (hours lost: 156)
2. Chicago (155)
3. Paris (138)
4. Boston (134)
5. New York (117)
6. Bogota (122)
7. Toronto (118)
8. Miami (105)
9. Palermo (121)
10. Monterrey (116)

source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ngested-cities

Research Methodology

The 2022 Scorecard builds upon the methodology adopted three years ago by identifying multiple commute areas within cities, capturing each city’s own unique mobility profile. Furthermore, the 2022 Scorecard analyses travel times, miles-travelled, trip characteristics and the impact of incidents on congestion within a city. From this multifaceted approach, a holistic understanding is achievable in an increasingly complex landscape.

The INRIX 2022 Global Traffic Scorecard calculates time lost in congestion by employing traffic data across multiple commute sub areas within a city. Commute sub areas are identified based upon the concentration of trips concluding within a defined area. An economic analysis was performed to estimate the total cost to the average driver in a city, and a total cost to the city population. Worst corridors are limited to those that have the highest traffic volume and are ranked by the average hours of delay per driver in 2022. Additional metrics are available online and in the full report.

https://inrix.com/press-releases/202...-scorecard-uk/

[MolsonExport]

Lists missing Delhi, Jakarata, Lagos, and Dhaka are suspect.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Lists missing Delhi, Jakarata, Lagos, and Dhaka are suspect.

Yeah, that was my first thought. I've heard Dhaka routinely has half-day-long traffic jams from the airport to business-class hotels. How can that be worse than London?

Even in Mexico, a simple rainfall can collapse the entire regionwide mobility. I've been stuck in an hours-long jam in Guadalajara for no other reason than rain.

[hauntedheadnc]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Even in Mexico, a simple rainfall can collapse the entire regionwide mobility. I've been stuck in an hours-long jam in Guadalajara for no other reason than rain.

If it makes you feel any better, the same thing happens in Atlanta.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

If it makes you feel any better, the same thing happens in Atlanta.

Yeah, weather affects traffic on most places, specially rainfall. I have coworkers that usually takes 1 hour, a bit more, even during the rush, but when it rains, it can go up to 3 hours.

Originally Posted by Wigs

I thought I heard/read somewhere that public transit in Bogotá sucks, when compared to the other large city in Colombia, Medellín

Bogotá is almost 10 million now and they still don't have subway. They built a very big BRT system inspired in Curitiba though.

On the other hand, there are much more cars per capita in São Paulo and in Centre-South Brazilian metropolises than most of Latin American metropolises. So I don't know, but I guess traffic in São Paulo is a bit worse.

[nito]

It is believable that London would score poorly, but mostly as a result of the move to disincentivise driving with measures to restrict car movements, e.g. Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, Congestion Charge, Ultra Low Emission Zone, reduced road capacity for bus lanes, cycle lanes, pedestrianisation, removal of car parking, etc... Most of London now has a blanket 20mph speed limit which is growing year-on-year as part of a target to eliminate serious injuries and deaths from vehicle accidents.

Another consideration with this study is that for a city like London, with an extensive public transport network (as is the case in Paris and New York whom rank 3rd and 5th), vehicle congestion is less of a concern due to a lower mode share, but it would be disproportionately more problematic for cities which are more car dependent.


Image sourced from TfL: https://content.tfl.gov.uk/london-di...-limit-map.pdf

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Lists missing Delhi, Jakarata, Lagos, and Dhaka are suspect.

Yeah, that's why I added the methodology. This probably explains why those places are missing:

Data Sources

INRIX fuses anonymous data from diverse datasets – such as phones, cars, trucks, and cities – that leads to robust and accurate insights. The data used in the 2022 Global Traffic Scorecard is the congested or uncongested status of every segment of road for every minute of the day, as used by millions of drivers around the world that rely on INRIX-based traffic services.

TLDR - They likely don't have reliable data from those cities.

[Yuri]

Palermo?! That’s a surprise.

[dimondpark]

London is a breeze compared to several cities off the top of my head, including those already mentioned in this thread, Bangkok and Manila also come to mind.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Lists missing Delhi, Jakarata, Lagos, and Dhaka are suspect.

Also, Los Angeles and The Bay area

can personally vouch for the traffic madness of Chicago and Toronto. ugh

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Lists missing Delhi, Jakarata, Lagos, and Dhaka are suspect.

The researchers who did the studies on congestion are probally still stuck in traffic to the airport, so they couldn't make it back to their offices to write the list, hence, these places are missing.

[Dariusb]

I'm surprised LA or San Francisco didn't make the cut.

[muppet]

London btw is actively trying to discourage car usage, almost every main street has had lanes taken out and pavements widened, and the remainder has bus lanes put in too, central reservations and bike lanes.

This one is Piccadilly, once a 5 lane stroad, now 2 lanes - the one on far left is a bus/ taxi lane, the last on the right has recently been resurfaced as pavement:





Likewise Regent Street






Oxford St - look at the far right and the difference in paving slabs. That's how narrow the pavement used to be back in the day (despite hosting half a million visitors a day)




Even planted blimming trees




It's not congested because car usage is high but because the council is making it as hellish as possible to drive.


The ULEZ (Ultra Low Emissions Zone) charges $15.20 daily for any car entering that is above a certain limit, on top of the $18.20 for congestion charging. Parking is $8.75 per hr, $6 for electric vehicles and impossible to find:





I wouldn't be surprised if next on the horizon for the indentured driver is they have to drive everywhere in reverse, or wear red clothing, or be naked.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by muppet

London btw is actively trying to discourage car usage, almost every main street has had lanes taken out and pavements widened...

I still sometimes have to think about it for a few seconds when "pavement" is used in British English.

For us Americans, "pavement" means any paved surface. Like "He fell of the motorcycle and his ass hit the pavement."

So, what do you guys call wooden sidewalks?

[muppet]

hmm boardwalks? I'd no idea pavement meant that abroad.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by muppet

hmm boardwalks? I'd no idea pavement meant that abroad.

Pavement in the U.S. means any concrete or asphalt surface, not just the sidewalk. I think British use of pavement is what Americans call sidewalks.

[muppet]

Interesting, in Britain we don't use concrete for roads, and not so much for pavement either, due to the damp wearing it away and making it black with mould/ stains within weeks. That's good for the er, sidewalk which tends to be stone or that yellowish gravel mix, or brick. But bad for the asphalt as everywhere is just black tarmac which looks horrible in our weather, as yeah light barely reaches ground. Kinda depressing:

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by muppet

Interesting, in Britain we don't use concrete for roads, and not so much for pavement either, due to the damp wearing it away and making it black with mould/ stains within weeks. That's good for the er, sidewalk which tends to be stone or that yellowish gravel mix, or brick. But bad for the asphalt as everywhere is just black tarmac which looks horrible in our weather, as yeah light barely reaches ground. Kinda depressing:

Pavements in London are amazing. Down here, it's a disaster.

[Kngkyle]

Seems to me that this is a list of cities making the correct decisions and investing in public transportation and not adding endless highway capacity. I'll take that second place as a badge of honor.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

Seems to me that this is a list of cities making the correct decisions and investing in public transportation and not adding endless highway capacity. I'll take that second place as a badge of honor.

Yeah but is Chicago really investing in public transportation? When was the last time a new line was added? I know there are other investments, like the CTA has done on mostly the northern lines, but still.