Three of the world's 5 cities with the 'slowest traffic' are in India

PARIS: The Colombian city of Barranquilla tops TomTom's Traffic Index 2024 international ranking, ahead of a number of Indian cities.

The city had the highest average travel time per 10km among all those studied. On average, it took just over 36 minutes to cover this distance.

Next come three Indian cities (Kolkata, Bangalore and Pune), where it took over 33 minutes to cover the same distance.

The top-ranking European city in this regard is London, in 5th, with an average time of 33 minutes and 17 seconds.

In Asia, Kyoto, Japan and Davao City, Philippines also figured in the top 10.

The leading French city in the list is Bordeaux (24th), where it takes 31 minutes and 8 seconds to cover 10km, while Paris (45th), it takes 28 minutes and 53 seconds.

Other indicators measure the level of congestion in a city.

Mexico City has a record congestion rate of 52%. This means that on all routes surveyed throughout the year on the entire road network, journey times are 52% longer than they would be when traffic is free-flowing in the city.

Mexico City is followed by Bangkok with a congestion rate of 50%. In Europe, Bucharest has a congestion rate of 48% to put it in fifth place while Dublin is in 10th position and Los Angeles in 20th).

Finally, in terms of lost time, Lima, Peru, and Dublin, Ireland, were the places where motorists wasted the most time in congestion, with no less than 155 hours spent in traffic jams, on a typical 10-kilometre journey, made every working day in the morning and evening rush hours.

By comparison, drivers in New York lose an average of 98 hours per year in rush hour traffic, in Paris 101 hours, Tokyo 82 hours, in Rio de Janeiro 78, Sydney 75 and Hong Kong 71 hours.

Malaysia is also on the list, with George Town slotted in the 73rd spot in the global ranking.

Within Malaysia, George Town was rated as the slowest city in the country, with an average travel time of 26 minutes 36 seconds per 10km during morning rush hour. This translates to drivers in George Town losing 75 hours per year due to rush hours, which is equivalent to three days and three hours.

Taking second place in Malaysia is Kota Baru with an average travel time per 10km of 22 minutes 30 seconds where drivers lost 60 hours. This is followed by Ipoh with 21 minutes 48 seconds and 51 hours lost.

The TomTom Traffic Index 2024 covers a total of 500 cities in 62 countries. The data comes from over 600 million connected devices, starting with in-car navigation systems and smartphones using TomTom applications.