Have you noticed your commute getting longer? You’re not alone – new research reveals jams have significantly worsened over the past 12 months.
Traffic in your town… it’s time to make for Bristol
Find out how many hours you’re wasting each year
The fifth annual Traffic Index from TomTom shows average journeys in 2014 took 29% longer than they would in free-flowing traffic – up from a 27% delay in 2013.
It also revealed snarl-ups in 14 out of Britain’s 17 largest cities have got worse over the last year. One city bucking the trend for jammed streets is Bristol – where congestion has lessened for the second year running.
TomTom data – extracted from 12million actions across the globe – has revealed evening rush-hour to be the busiest time of day.
With figures for 2014 showing the average commuter with a 30-minute drive spending 66 hours stuck in evening rush-hour traffic (compared with free-flowing streets), this increases to a total of 129 hours when the morning commute is added.
Congestion levels worsened over the past year in London, Brighton, Nottingham, Leicester, Birmingham, Portsmouth, Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow and Southampton. They have also failed to improve in Sheffield and Leeds-Bradford.
The city taking the dubious accolade as the UK’s most congested is Belfast, with journey times 82% longer in both the morning and evening rush-hour.
Second is London with journey times 67% longer in the evening peak. The Scottish capital Edinburgh is the third most congested city, with travel taking 36% longer on average and 71% longer in the evening rush hour.
Brighton and Hove – with 34% congestion in 2014 compared with 31% in 2013 – moves up the table from fifth to fourth, while Manchester also jumps a place to fifth with congestion increasing from 26% to 32%.
Good news for drivers in the west, though, with Bristol dropping two places to sixth – showing a cut in congestion from 32% to 29%.
Top 10 most-congested UK cities
Here are the cities to avoid as the clock strikes rush-hour. See how many hours you’ll have wasted in the past year slogging your way home in these metropolitan areas…
Top 10 most-congested UK cities
Driving on your hols
Istanbul…the world’s most-congested city: image credit
Heading off on your travels? Then you should avoid hitting the road in Istanbul! It’s now the most congested city globally with congestion at 58%, rising to road rage levels of 109% in the evening peak.
Mexico City (55%) is in second place, followed by Rio de Janeiro (51%).