Londoners spend almost a week of each year in traffic jams, new study from TomTom shows
If you thought it took you longer to get a taxi to that meeting last week than it did a couple of years ago, you were probably right.
New research from TomTom has revealed London's commuters are enduring an extra 39 minutes of travel time each day, or 149 hours a year, due to traffic delays.
The research also found the worst day of the week for morning congestion in London is Tuesday, when growing tailbacks mean journeys take more than 60 per cent longer than they should.
The worst day of the week for evening rush hour congestion is Thursday, followed by Friday and Wednesday.
According to TomTom, traffic congestion is steadily worsening in London. The “added delay” figure for the city’s traffic was 37 per cent in 2014 and 34 per cent in 2013.
TomTom's annual Traffic Index showed traffic moved 38 per cent more slowly than if the roads were flowing freely. UK journeys took an average of 29 per cent longer than they would in free-flowing conditions, up from a 25 per cent delay in 2010.
Nick Cohn, senior traffic expert at TomTom, said: “Travel times got worse on all these routes apart from the A201 eastbound leading away from Elephant and Castle," Nick Cohn, senior traffic expert at TomTom, said.
“This might be explained by the fact that if roads approaching Elephant and Castle are choked up, roads flowing out of it will, understandably, be relatively free of traffic. If you can’t get in, you can’t get out.”
Belfast was found to be the most congested city in Britain, experiencing delays of 40 minutes per day, while London came in second.
Traffic congestion in the UK’s biggest cities was 14 per cent worse than it was five years ago. Across the rest of Europe, average congestion was down three per cent over the same period.