It’s Official: Bengaluru Has the World’s Worst Traffic

Ask any Bengaluru resident and they’ll tell you that traffic in India’s Garden City is so bad, it feels like life is passing you by while you’re waiting to crawl yet another 10cms. Now, a new global report confirms that Bengaluru traffic is indeed the worst in the world. Location technology specialist TomTom revealed the TomTom Traffic Index—a report detailing the traffic situation in 416 cities in 57 countries—and turns out India has the worst traffic problem in the world. In fact, it’s so bad that four of the 10 most traffic congested cities in the world are from India, including Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Pune.

Bengaluru tops the list of top 10 traffucked cities with a traffic congestion as high as 71 percent, with the report even revealing that the most congested day of the year was August 20, 2019, which had a 103 percent congestion. The report also estimates that approximately 243 hours, which amounts to 10 days and 3 hours, are spent killing time in your car, time that could have otherwise been spent watching 139 football games. The only silver lining in this cloud of congestion is that the report also outlines any time between 7 to 8 PM to avoid too much traffic.

Followed by Bengaluru is Manila in the Philippines, which also has a congestion of 71 percent, with Colombian city Bogota being third in line. The fourth and fifth spots go to Pune and Mumbai respectively, with India’s national capital Delhi being 8th on the index. Mumbai has a congestion of 65 percent, with residents spending 209 hours for the traffic lights to change, whereas Pune is at 59 percent, with locals losing 193 hours by waiting in traffic. Meanwhile Delhi, despite having the highest number of cars in the country, records a 56 percent traffic congestion rate due to its roads being in better conditions.

TomTom calculates each city’s baseline by analysing the travel time of all vehicles on the entire road framework recorded for 24 hours every day for 365 days a year. The report by Dutch navigation and mapping company ranks cities for having the worst traffic by the average time added to a trip, including information on when the traffic is heaviest and lightest, and how much time drivers wasted waiting for other drivers to get out of their way.

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