Photo: istanbul_congested_city-572×369
Istanbul is Europe’s most congested city
22 October 2012
by Richard Forster
Tom Tom, the world’s leading supplier of in-car location and navigation products, has revealed the latest results for its Congestion Index, which identifies European traffic hot spots in cities between April and June 2012.
“We are now able to understand real life driving patterns by time of day, day of week, time of year and around special events,” said a spokesman for TomTom. “Over the years we have built the world’s largest database of historic travel times and the most detailed and accurate real-time traffic information available.”
The latest results, which rank 31 European cities, show that Istanbul is the worst European city for traffic jams, as its peak time is 57 percent more congested than its non-peak times. Poland’s capital, Warsaw, is in second place with a 45 percent increase and Marseille is in third with a 40 percent leap, narrowly ahead of Palermo in Italy. The top ten includes capitals Paris and Rome plus German cities Hamburg and Stuttgart.
TomTom’s Congestion Index claims to be the world’s most accurate barometer of congestion in urban areas and is drawn from a database with over six trillion data measurements. The overall congestion level for all the European cities analysed between April and June 2012 is 23 percent, a drop of 4 percent compared to the same period in 2011.
Top Ten European Cities for Congestion:
- Istanbul (Turkey) – 57% busier at peak times than during non-peak times
- Warsaw (Poland) – 45%
- Marseille (France) – 40%
- Palermo (Italy) – 40%
- Rome (Italy) – 34%
- Paris (France) – 34%
- Stuttgart (Germany) – 33%
- Brussels (Belgium) – 32%
- Hamburg (Germany) – 32%
- Stockholm (Sweden) – 30%
