Globally, Istanbul, Turkey, is where you have to wait the longest: there, drivers spend an average of 105 hours in traffic jams every year, closely followed by the American cities of New York and Chicago, both with 102 hours of traffic jams. Mexico City is in 4th place with 97 hours of traffic congestion. On European territory, drivers are stuck the longest in London (101 hours per year, 5th place worldwide) and Paris (97 hours, 6th place worldwide). This is evident from the 2024 Global Traffic Scorecard from traffic data agency Inrix. The fact that motorists in London spend longer in traffic jams than in Mexico City, but the British are one place lower in the rankings, is due to the impact that traffic jams have. Adjusted for the size of the city, traffic jams in the Mexican city have more influence than in London. The Indonesian capital Jakarta also has a notorious traffic image. People there spend an average of 89 hours in traffic jams – 37 percent more than a year earlier – which puts Jakarta in 7th place. Indian cities, also notoriously busy areas, were not included in the study. Dutch cities In the Netherlands, the roads are busiest in Rotterdam. Utrecht follows in 36th place, also with 63 hours of stationary or slow-moving traffic, but the ‘top speed’ there, at 29 kilometers per hour, is a bit higher than in Rotterdam. The top speed is the average speed that motorists can drive in the center in busy times. Amsterdam is in 39th place with 55 hours of traffic jams. In The Hague, people spend 58 hours due to traffic congestion, but adjusted for the size of the city, according to Inrix this has less impact than the traffic jams in Amsterdam, putting The Hague in 41st place. Leiden is doing good business: there are no fewer than 17 percent fewer traffic jams than in 2023, and motorists there now waste ‘only’ 59 hours in traffic jams, instead of 71 hours. This puts Leiden in 68th place worldwide. Of the almost thousand cities surveyed, Middelburg is the last Dutch city, at 870th place. A motorist there spends an average of 12 hours a year due to traffic congestion. Traffic jams often cause frustration for motorists and also cost money. Inrix has also calculated this ‘lost time’ as a financial setback for a number of countries. For example, it costs British motorists, who spend an average of 62 hours in traffic jams, around €702 per person per year. For German motorists, who are stuck for about 40 hours a year, this amounts to €427. No calculations have been made for the Netherlands.
Source: www.autoweek.nl
