Drivers in Leeds and Bradford spend even more time stuck in traffic than drivers in London, according to a new study by sat nav firm TomTom.
TomTom Congestion Index - click to enlarge
Drivers in the Leeds-Bradford area are delayed by an average of 36 minutes in every hour during peak times — meaning that some spend a depressing 86 hours per year stuck in traffic jams. That’s equivalent to two weeks at work!
London is next on the list, with drivers in the capital spending an average of 74 hours per year in traffic jams.
Rush hour traffic in London was found to double journey times, with traffic delays adding 27% onto the length of journeys at other times.
Also near the top of the list is Birmingham (73 hours per year), but Leeds-Bradford holds the overall crown for the UK and has the 7th worst traffic congestion in Europe – here’s the European top 10:
- Warsaw
- Marseille
- Rome
- Brussels
- Paris
- Dublin
- Bradford-Leeds
- London
- Stockholm
- Hamburg
TomTom gathers the data through its IQ Routes system, which collects anonymous data from millions of drivers’ sat navs all over Europe and uses it to calculate the fastest route for the time of day when working out a route for any journey.
For van drivers and others who are driving on business, it can be a make a worthwhile difference — especially if you choose a TomTom Live model, which receives live data about traffic congestion and delays and automatically recalculates your route, if necessary, to route you around the problem, rather than straight into it.
If you don’t have a sat nav of your own, many car and van hire firms now offers them as an optional extra — check when booking if you’re interested.
You can find the complete TomTom Congestion Index here.