Those are the headline findings of the latest TomTom Traffic Index 2016, the annual report detailing congestion hotspots, specifically in terms of cities, around the world.
The UK is also home to 11 cities in the top 100 most congested cities ranking – Belfast, Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Brighton & Hove, Bournemouth, Sheffield, Hull, Bristol, Newcastle and Leicester.
TomTom’s historical data also reveals that traffic congestion is up by 19% globally since 2008, but with significant differences between continents.
Between 2015 and 2016, North America’s traffic congestion increased by 5%, whereas Europe’s rose by 9%.
Asia and Oceania were both up by 12%, while South America’s congestion grew 7% and Africa’s by 15%.
TomTom suggests that its congestion data points to economic growth in North America, but depression in the rest of Europe – adding that the European figure is heavily influenced by southern European countries such as Italy (-7%) and Spain (-13%).
Meanwhile, the busiest day on the roads last year in London was Thursday 23 June – polling day for the Brexit referendum, And the greatest increase in congestion came in Sheffield, which was up 5% on last year.
Belfast took the crown as the most congested city in the UK, with drivers spending an extra 87% of their time stuck in traffic at peak morning and evening times – and adding up to 200 hours of travel time per year.
The second busiest city in the UK was Edinburgh, notching up a 3% increase in congestion.
TomTom Traffic Index looks at traffic congestion in 390 cities in 48 countries on six continents – from Rome to Rio, and Singapore to San Francisco – using a claimed nearly 19 trillion data points.
This is the sixth year of the TomTom Traffic Index, which also identifies the busiest days and times on the roads in every city.
In other TomTom news, TomTom Telematics has now surpassed the 700,000-vehicles milestone, confirming the company as one of the leading European fleet management system providers.
“Our focus on innovation is one of the core drivers of the growth we have seen in our business,” comments Thomas Schmidt, managing director of TomTom Telematics.
“We currently stand on the verge of an exciting new era for the fleet management industry: the rise in vehicle connectivity is going to transform the way fleets operate,” he continues.
“Together with our partners, we want to create new apps, solutions and integrations that will offer innovative benefits to customers in any industry, operating any type of vehicle fleet.”
To check out Traffic Index data relevant to your operation, visit: www.tomtom.com/trafficindex.