“Sometimes when we’re stuck in traffic we think it’s never going to end and never going to get better,” George Slavich, assistant professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA told the Los Angeles Times back in 2011. That’s when he was offering commuters strategies to cope with Los Angeles’s 2011 “Carmageddon,” where the media hyped the weekend closure of 10 miles of the 405 Freeway into a major calamity. “We sort of ‘catastrophize’ the situation,” Slavich said, “we take a situation that is relatively limited and we think it’s the worst it’s ever been.”
“Carmageddon” was not as bad as expected, but every day of the work week is pretty miserable if you’re driving in L.A. According to a newly released data from GPS maker TomTom, Los Angeles ranked No. 10 for most congested cites in world last year. The company found that a 30 minute commute in the evening took 54 minutes because of congestion, for a total of 92 hours of extra driving annually.
But Angelenos should consider themselves lucky they’re not in Istanbul or Mexico City.
TomTom’s annual Traffic Index explores traffic congestion in over 200 cities around the world and ranks a total of 146 cities. The data revealed that the average commuter last year traveled an extra 100 hours during the evening rush hour alone.
Here’s TomTom’s top ten:
Istanbul
Congestion Level: 58%
TomTom writes “Commuters in Istanbul experience the worst traffic congestion overall, the evening rush hour is no exception. The average 30 minute drive in the city will take over an hour during evening rush hour, leading to an extra 125 hours wasted stuck in traffic every year.”
| World rank compared to other large cities | 1/146 |
| Congestion Level on highways | 79% |
| Congestion Level on non-highways | 50% |
| Delay per day with a 30 min commute | 29 min |
| Delay per year with a 30 min commute | 110 hr |
| Most congested specific day | Fri, Jul 25, 2014 |
| Total network length | 11,230 mi |
| Total network length highways | 249 mi |
| Total network length non-highways | 10,981 mi |
| Total vehicle distance | 91,364 773 mi |
Mexico City
Congestion Level: 55%
| World rank compared to other large cities | 2/146 |
| Congestion Level on highways | 46% |
| Congestion Level on non-highways | 59% |
| Delay per day with a 30 min commute | 29 min |
| Delay per year with a 30 min commute | 110 hr |
| Most congested specific day | Fri, Oct 10, 2014 |
| Total network length | 32,982 mi |
| Total network length highways | 605 mi |
| Total network length non-highways | 32,376 mi |
| Total vehicle distance | 1,020,838 mi |
Rio de Janeiro
Congestion Level: 51%
| World rank compared to other large cities | 3/146 |
| Congestion Level on highways | 49% |
| Congestion Level on non-highways | 52% |
| Delay per day with a 30 min commute | 26 min |
| Delay per year with a 30 min commute | 99 hr |
| Most congested specific day | Tue, Dec 23, 2014 |
| Total network length | 12,197 mi |
| Total network length highways | 122 mi |
| Total network length non-highways | 12,075 mi |
| Total vehicle distance | 15,611,815 mi |
Moscow
Congestion Level: 50%
| World rank compared to other large cities | 4/146 |
| Congestion Level on highways | 67% |
| Congestion Level on non-highways | 45% |
| Delay per day with a 30 min commute | 29 min |
| Delay per year with a 30 min commute | 109 hr |
| Most congested specific day | Thu 25 Dec 2014 |
| Total network length | 22,324 mi |
| Total network length highways | 231 mi |
| Total network length non-highways | 22,093 mi |
| Total vehicle distance | 231,398,727 mi |
Salvador, Brazil
Congestion Level: 46%
| World rank compared to other large cities | 5/146 |
| Congestion Level on highways | 33% |
| Congestion Level on non-highways | 50% |
| Delay per day with a 30 min commute | 24 min |
| Delay per year with a 30 min commute | 93 hr |
| Most congested specific day | Wed Nov 12, 2014 |
| Total network length | 2,375 mi |
| Total network length highways | 30 mi |
| Total network length non-highways | 2,346 mi |
| Total vehicle distance | 2,084,186 mi |
Recife, Brazil
Congestion Level: 45%
| World rank compared to other large cities | 6/146 |
| Congestion Level on highways | 37% |
| Congestion Level on non-highways | 55% |
| Delay per day with a 30 min commute | 27 min |
| Delay per year with a 30 min commute | 103 hr |
| Most congested specific day | Fri Nov, 28 2014 |
| Total network length | 4,854 mi |
| Total network length highways | 80 mi |
| Total network length non-highways | 4,774 mi |
| Total vehicle distance | 2,684,900 mi |
St. Petersburg
Congestion Level: 44%
| World rank compared to other large cities | 7/146 |
| Congestion Level on highways | 25% |
| Congestion Level on non-highways | 46% |
| Delay per day with a 30 min commute | 27 min |
| Delay per year with a 30 min commute | 104 hr |
| Most congested specific day | Thu Dec 25, 2014 |
| Total network length | 6,782 mi |
| Total network length highways | 87 mi |
| Total network length non-highways | 6,695 mi |
| Total vehicle distance | 43,824,320 mi |
Bucharest, Romania
Congestion Level: 41%
| World rank compared to other large cities | 8/146 |
| Congestion Level on highways | 28% |
| Congestion Level on non-highways | 45% |
| Delay per day with a 30 min commute | 27 min |
| Delay per year with a 30 min commute | 103 hr |
| Most congested specific day | Fri 28 Nov 2014 |
| Total network length | 3,775 mi |
| Total network length highways | 100 mi |
| Total network length non-highways | 3,675 mi |
| Total vehicle distance | 632,222 mi |
Warsaw
Congestion Level: 40%
| World rank compared to other large cities | 9/146 |
| Congestion Level on highways | 37% |
| Congestion Level on non-highways | 42% |
| Delay per day with a 30 min commute | 25 min |
| Delay per year with a 30 min commute | 96 hr |
| Most congested specific day | Fri Dec 19, 2014 |
| Total network length | 4,772 mi |
| Total network length highways | 222 mi |
| Total network length non-highways | 4,550 mi |
| Total vehicle distance | 8,615,724 mi |
Los Angeles
Congestion Level: 39%
| World rank compared to other large cities | 10/146 |
| Congestion Level on highways | 36% |
| Congestion Level on non-highways | 42% |
| Delay per day with a 30 min commute | 25 min |
| Delay per year with a 30 min commute | 95 hr |
| Most congested specific day | Fri Feb 14, 2014 |
| Total network length | 42,217 mi |
| Total network length highways | 1,197 mi |
| Total network length non-highways | 41,019 mi |
| Total vehicle distance | 15,641,975 mi |