Skip to main content

London wins prize that no-one wants

UK capital is most congested city in world - again! - says Inrix Global Traffic Scorecard
By Adam Hill January 11, 2023 Read time: 2 mins
Oh, and it was probably raining too (© Cindy21c | Dreamstime.com)

For the second year in a row, London has topped the Inrix Global Traffic Scorecard as the most congested city in the world.

No cause for celebration, it means the average London driver lost 156 hours of his or her life sitting in traffic in 2022.

But London only just pipped the US city of Chicago - a very, very close second with drivers drumming their fingers on the steering wheel and honking their horns in frustration for 155 hours.

In third place is - quelle horreur! - Paris, the City of Light, whose radical reimagining of its streets to favour pedestrians, cyclists and micromobility has not made it immune from the frustrations of l'embouteillage.

Parisien drivers lost 138 hours - and probably some of their sanity at times - in queues.

Inrix says that traffic delays exceeded pre-Covid levels in 39% of urban areas in the US (116 out of 295), and 42% in Europe (249 out of 593).

In the UK, traffic delays increased 72% in urban areas (79 out of 110), while in Germany, 51% of urban areas saw more delay than in 2019 (37 out of 72).

The typical US driver lost 51 hours due to congestion in 2022, a 15-hour increase over 2021. In the UK, a driver lost 80 hours (up seven hours) while in Germany there was no change, at 40 hours.

In financial terms, this equates to losses for drivers of $81 billion in 2022 in the US, with UK drivers out of pocket to the tune of nearly £9.5 billion and German drivers losing  €3.9 billion.

Telecommuting has appeared to ease with the onset of hybrid work, yet still exceeds pre-Covid levels.

In the UK, hybrid work increased from 13% to 24%, while working solely from home dropped from 22% to 14%.

Trips to downtowns and city centres generally increased over 2021, although they decreased in London.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Rethinking urban traffic congestion to put people first
    August 28, 2015
    Following the publication of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute/Inrix report on urban traffic congestion in the US, Robert Puentes, senior fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program , says that while the focus and themes of the report are largely the same as previous years, big changes are underway in how we study, think about, and address metropolitan traffic congestion. This new, modern approach calls into question whether the endless pursuit of congestion relief makes sense a
  • ITS growing in public transit: report
    October 5, 2022
    Berg Insight says market for ITS on buses and trams will be €2.8bn in Europe by 2026
  • London’s strategy to tackle air quality problems
    October 21, 2014
    Colin Sowman talks to Matthew Pencharz, the man charged with charting London’s path between catering for traveller needs, conserving ancient buildings and conforming to modern air quality standards.
  • Xerox considers smarter city solutions
    October 14, 2016
    Richard Harris from Xerox considers how to alleviate inner-city traffic congestion. Whether travelling for business or leisure, wasting unnecessary time during your journey is a common source of frustration. From dealing with congestion, hold-ups caused by broken down vehicles or crashes to roadworks and other types of delay, wasting time is almost guaranteed to make most people experience additional stress before they even get to where they want to go.