Chongqing Is Most Congested City in China, Says TomTom’s List of Cities With Most Traffic Congestion

(YicaiGlobal) Feb. 24 — TomTom Telematics, owned by Dutch navigation company TomTom, has released a list of cities around the world with the most traffic congestion in 2016. Mexico City, capital of Mexico, once again took the top spot. China has four of the top 10 most congested cities in the world. Chongqing ranks the fourth globally, with a congestion index of 52 percent, making it China’s most congested city.

The report issued by TomTom Telematics covers 390 cities in 48 countries. It calculates the traffic congestion index of major cities based on the percentage of extra travel time spent by drivers stuck in traffic. Mexico City has a congestion index of 66 percent. That means drivers there spend an average of 66 percent extra travel time in traffic and even longer time in the evening peak periods, adding up to 227 hours of extra travel time per year on average.

Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, takes the second place, with a congestion index of 61 percent, followed by Indonesia’s capital Jakarta on the third spot, which has a congestion index of 58 percent.
The top 10 cities also include the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, seventh with 47 percent, and Tainan and Beijing (tied for ninth with 46 percent each).

In Europe, Romania’s capital Bucharest is the most congested city (50 percent) and ranks fifth globally. Moscow, which took last year’s top spot in Europe, becomes the second most congested city with a congestion index of 44 percent.

The top five most congested cities in North America are Mexico City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver and New York. There rankings are the same as those in 2015, though with increased congestion.

The top 10 most congested cities in Asia are Bangkok, Jakarta, Chongqing, Istanbul, Chengdu, Tainan, Beijing, Changsha, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, seven of which are in China.