TomTom launches Congestion Index based on traffic database; congestion levels in 57 cities in North America and Europe
11 July 2012
TomTom, the leading supplier of in-car location and navigation products and services, launched its first quarterly Congestion Index. The Index accurately identifies and analyzes traffic congestion in 57 major cities across North America and Europe.
The Index is uniquely based on real time travel data captured by vehicles driving along the entire road network within the select cities. TomTom’s traffic database contains more than six trillion data measurements and is growing by five billion measurements every day. The Congestion Index compares travel time during non-congested periods (free flow) with travel times in peak hours. The difference is expressed as a percentage increase in travel time, representing the congestion level.
TomTom takes into account local roads, arterials and highways. All data is based on actual GPS based measurements and for each city the sample size is expressed in total number of measured kilometers for the period.
As well as assigning and ranking the overall congestion levels of the cities, the report analyses the congestion levels in cities at different times of the day and on different days of the week.
Individual city reports include more detailed information such as the most congested day, average free flow speed, time delay per year for commuters and congestion levels on highways and local roads.
North America. The report, initially covering 26 major cities in North America, finds Los Angeles to be the most congested city there. On average, journey times in Los Angeles take 33% longer than when traffic in the city is flowing freely and 77% longer during evening rush hour.
The top ten most congested cities in North America, ranked by overall congestion level, between January and March 2012 were:
- Los Angeles, 33%
- Vancouver, 30%
- Miami, 26%
- Seattle, 25%
- Tampa, 25%
- San Francisco, 25%
- Washington, 24%
- Houston, 23%
- Toronto, 22%
- Ottawa, 22%
TomTom’s Congestion Index also compares congestion levels between January and March 2012 with the same period in 2011. Based on this analysis, Seattle saw the biggest increase in traffic congestion, while Houston, Ottawa and San Francisco also saw increased levels of congestion. Conversely, Edmonton, New York, Boston, Minneapolis and Toronto experienced a reduction in congestion levels.
Europe. The report, initially covering 31 cities in Europe, finds Warsaw the most congested city there. On average, journey times in Warsaw are 42% longer than when traffic in the city is flowing freely and 89% longer during morning rush hour.
The top ten most congested cities, ranked by overall congestion level, between January and March 2012 were:
- Warsaw, 42%
- Marseille, 41%
- Rome, 34%
- Brussels, 34%
- Paris, 32%
- Dublin, 30%
- Bradford – Leeds, 28%
- London, 27%
- Stockholm, 27%
- Hamburg, 27%
Based on the comparison with 2011, Bradford – Leeds in the UK saw the biggest increase in traffic congestion with journey times slowing significantly. Munich, Berlin, Marseille and Vienna all saw increased levels of congestion. Lisbon, Bern, Amsterdam, Milan and Rome all experienced a reduction in congestion levels.
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