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

  • Asian cities dominate ranking of world's biggest and busiest metros
    November 6, 2015
    Asian cities dominate the ranking of the world’s biggest and busiest metro systems, according to a new report from UITP, the International Association of Public Transport. The report, World Metro Figures, is a comprehensive study on the current state of the world’s metro networks and highlights potential future developments. The report shows that in 2014, 156 cities around the world had a metro system in operation, nearly two thirds of which were in Asia and Europe. The world’s busiest metro networ
  • Supply chain issues: AGD looks ahead
    June 2, 2022
    There are multiple causes for current global supply chain issues – and this isn’t likely to improve in the near future. Ian Hind of ITS manufacturer AGD Systems spells out how to mitigate the impact
  • Wavetronix radar-based traffic sensor cuts costs
    May 30, 2013
    While initial cost of radar based detection may be higher than that traditional loops, lower maintenance costs more than balance the books. Following successful field tests, the US city of Greenville, North Carolina, has recently agreed a new policy of phasing in Wavetronix traffic sensor technology’s radar-based SmartSensor Matrix system across its signalised traffic intersections. City traffic engineer Rik DiCesare expects the incremental implementation to deliver benefits to both the city’s taxpayers an
  • National Safety Council estimates traffic deaths down three percent in 2013
    February 13, 2014
    The US National Safety Council announced today its preliminary estimate that approximately 35,200 motor vehicle fatalities occurred in the US in 2013, a three percent decrease from 2012. Crash injuries requiring medical attention also are estimated to have fallen by two percent since 2012 to a total of 3.8 million. Although 2013 traffic fatalities are three percent lower than 2012, they are one percent higher than 2011. The relatively high number of fatalities in 2012 appears to have been a one year bum