CONCORD, Mass.--April 4, 2013: TomTom today announces the results of its 2012 Congestion Index, which measures traffic congestion in 161 cities across five continents and compares it to congestion levels in 2011. The annual Congestion Index also examines the congestion in 59 metropolitan areas with a population of more than 800,000 across North America, and found Los Angeles continued to be the most congested city in North America.
“TomTom's Annual Congestion Index provides accurate insight into the world's most congested cities”
On average, journey times in Los Angeles are 33% longer than when traffic in the city is flowing freely and 77% longer during evening rush hour. TomTom's Congestion Index, including individual city reports, can be found at TomTom Congestion Index .
TomTom's Congestion Index is the world's most accurate barometer of congestion in urban areas. The Index is uniquely based on real travel time data captured by vehicles driving the entire road network. TomTom's traffic database contains more than six trillion data measurements and is growing by five billion measurements every day. The average congestion level for all the North American cities analyzed between July and September 2012 is 18%.
The top ten most congested North American cities, ranked by overall Congestion Level, in 2012 were:
1. Los Angeles (33%)
2. Vancouver (32%)
3. Honolulu
(30%)
4.
San Francisco (29%)
5. Seattle (26%)
6. Toronto (25%)
7.
San Jose (25%)
8. Washington (25%)
9. New Orleans
(25%)
10.
Montreal (25%)
"TomTom's Annual Congestion Index provides accurate insight into the world's most congested cities," said Ralf-Peter Schaefer, Head of Traffic at TomTom. "This detailed knowledge of the entire road network, helps businesses and governments make more informed decisions about how best to tackle and avoid congestion. TomTom's world-class traffic information also helps drivers get to their destinations faster. Significantly, when used on a large scale, TomTom Traffic has the potential to ease congestion in cities and urban areas by routing drivers away from congested areas."
The methodology used in the Congestion Index compares measured travel times during non-congested periods (free flow) with travel times in peak hours. The difference is expressed as a percentage increase in travel time. The Index takes into account local roads, arterials, as well as highways. All data is based on actual GPS based measurements.
As well as assigning and ranking the overall congestion levels of over 161 cities around the world, the report analyses the congestion levels in cities at different times of the day and on different days of the week. TomTom analyzed capital cities as well as cities with a population of over 800,000. In addition, a selection of key cities with smaller populations was included based on their regional importance to the transportation network. The purpose of adding these smaller cities was to provide a better understanding of congestion levels within individual countries.
Individual city reports include more detailed information such as the most congested day, time delay per year for commuters and congestion levels on main and secondary roads.
