TomTom Launches Quarterly Congestion Index

July 10, 2012 - By GPS World Staff

TomTom launches the first quarterly Congestion Index that accurately identifies and analyses traffic congestion in major cities across Europe. The report, initially covering 31 cities, finds Warsaw the most congested city in Europe.

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 TomTom Congestion Index, including individual city reports, can be found at www.tomtom.com/congestionindex.

The TomTom 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 over five trillion data measurements and is growing by five billion measurements every day. The overall congestion level for all the cities analysed in Europe is 24% – meaning journey times take 24% longer than when traffic is flowing freely.

The top ten most congested European 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%

“Over the years, with the help of our customers, we have built the largest and most accurate database of travel times in the world,” said Harold Goddijn; Chief Executive Officer of TomTom. “When we combine this travel database with our detailed real-time traffic information and routing technology, we can not only pin point congestion, but can guide drivers away from congested areas onto faster routes.”

“Even when only a percentage of drivers use a different and faster route, the available capacity on the entire road network increases, which benefits all drivers,” Goddijn added.

TomTom’s Congestion Index also compares congestion levels between January and March 2012 with the same period in 2011. Based on this analysis, 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.

TomTom also launched the first quarterly Congestion Index that accurately identifies and analyzes traffic congestion in major cities across North America. The report, initially covering 26 major cities, finds Los Angeles to be the most congested city in North America. 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 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. The top ten most congested North American cities, 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.