Global congestion up – but new technology signals way forward
TomTom, a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Partner of RoadSafetyUAE released the results of the TomTom Traffic Index, a report detailing the traffic situation in 403 cities in 56 countries around the world.
Mumbai takes the top spot this year with drivers in the Indian city expecting to spend an average of 65% extra travel time stuck in traffic. Next in the global rankings are Colombian capital, Bogota (63%), Lima in Peru (58%), New Delhi in India (58%) and the Russian capital, Moscow (56%), making up the top five most congested cities in the world.
Traffic congestion has increased globally during the last decade, and nearly 75% of the cities TomTom includes in the new Traffic Index report had increased or stable congestion levels between 2017 and 2018, with only 90 cities showing measurable decreases.
“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,” said Ralf-Peter Schäfer, VP of Traffic Information, TomTom.
The two top UAE cities Abu Dhabi and Dubai have been included in the survey. Abu Dhabi ranks 396 with a congestion level of 11% extra travel time stuck in traffic (unchanged vs. 2017). Dubai ranks 202 with a congestion level of 23% (with a positive trend -4% vs. 2017).
“From our own studies we observe, that UAE’s motorists give a lot of credit to the UAE authorities for continuously improving the road infrastructure,” commented Thomas Edelmann, Managing Director of RoadSafetyUAE.
