Skip to main content

Study reveals Warsaw as Europe’s most congested city

Vehicle GPS provider TomTom is revealing details of a study into traffic congestion it had carried out across Europe. This quarterly Congestion Index involves studies of 31 major European cities with populations of over 800,000. According to the study, Poland’s capital Warsaw suffers the worst traffic congestion of any European city. For the UK, the Leeds-Bradford are has come out as the most congested area. Drivers in the Yorkshire conurbation spend an average 86hours/year stuck in traffic jams according t
July 12, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Vehicle GPS provider 3972 TomTom is revealing details of a study into traffic congestion it had carried out across Europe. This quarterly Congestion Index involves studies of 31 major European cities with populations of over 800,000. According to the study, Poland’s capital Warsaw suffers the worst traffic congestion of any European city. For the UK, the Leeds-Bradford are has come out as the most congested area. Drivers in the Yorkshire conurbation spend an average 86hours/year stuck in traffic jams according to the study. The Index is based on real travel time data captured by vehicles driving the entire European road network and compiled from five trillion anonymous data measurements on TomTom's servers.

Drivers in the Leeds-Bradford area endure journey times up to 63% longer than normal in morning peak periods and 60% longer in the evening rush-hour. Overall, congestion in the Leeds-Bradford area slows journey times down by an average of 28%. By comparison in UK capital London traffic jams delay journeys by an average of 27% and up to 50% in the evening rush-hour, while drivers spend an average 74 hours/year stuck in traffic jams. The two Yorkshire areas have suffered a 5% increase in congestion since 2011, the biggest of anywhere in Europe. Drivers there face a delay of 36 minutes for every hour they drive in peak periods. Leeds-Bradford is now seventh in a table of most traffic clogged cities across Europe, up from 19th in 2011.

Drivers in Birmingham spend an average 73 hours/year stuck in traffic jams. Traffic in the West Midlands city is delayed by an average of 21% because of congestion with delays of up to 28 minutes/hour during peak periods. Birmingham has risen from 23rd in the TomTom congestion ranking last year to 19th in 2012. The worst days for congestion are Tuesday and Thursday in Leeds-Bradford and Birmingham, while Mondays and Thursdays are worst in London.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • UK drivers urged not to eat at wheel after alarming survey
    February 21, 2014
    UK drivers are being urged to take a break and enjoy their food away from their vehicles, as road safety charity Brake and Direct Line reveal more than six in ten (62%) have eaten at the wheel in the past year. Further alarming figures revealed that three in ten (29%) unwrapped food themselves at the wheel - a telling symptom, says Brake and Direct Line, of busy lifestyles putting lives at risk. Studies have suggested eating a meal at the wheel increases your risk of a devastating crash as much as talking
  • $66 billion for Florida transport infrastructure
    March 11, 2025
    $66 billion will be spent on Florida’s transport infrastructure over the next five years.
  • Brazil’s Serra do Cafezal Highway
    July 29, 2015
    Brazil's improved Mercosur route will boost capacity and cut travel time - Mauro Nogarin writes. The Régis Bittencourt Highway is one of the main access routes of the Mercosur traffic. It has a length of 400km and connects the main cities of São Paulo and Curitiba, which allows for products to enter from the southeast toward the rest of the southern part of Brazil and later transit to Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Products also flow into Brazil from Mercosur through this major highway. The cost of the hi
  • Ageing drivers in the US
    October 20, 2016
    US drivers are getting older, while there are now more females than males behind the wheel in the country. The latest data shows that nearly 20% of drivers in the US are aged 65 or more, and women drivers now outnumber male drivers. These trends have been identified as a result of data analysis by the US Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The preliminary data from the FHWA shows that the US now has more drivers than ever before, an estimated 217.9 million. The research sho