London Most Congested City Globally and the Economic Cost is Rising

London is the most congested city in the world, according to a report from Inrix.

In the location analytics firm’s 2021 Global Traffic Scorecard London is ranked as the most congested city, although the ranked urban centres does not include areas of the world where Inrix products do not collect data, such as Lagos, Nigeria and Lahore, Pakistan.

Ranked at number 16 in 2020, London has moved into top spot this year, followed by Paris, Brussels, Moscow and Rome. Inrix uses an “hours lost” model to rank the cities. On that basis, London journey makers have lost an average of 148 hours stuck in congestion in the city.

Economic and environmental cost of congestion

There is a cost to the environment associated with pollution from vehicle emissions generated by idling cars, not to mention the inconvenience of arriving late at destinations. But there is also a quantifiable economic cost says Inrix.

Inrix estimates that compared to pre-pandemic (2019 v 2021), drivers in the US saved $810 due to less congestion, while in the UK the figure was £309 per driver. Drivers in Germany saved just €37.

Controversially perhaps, Inrix blames the increase in traffic congestion in London on the introduction of more cycle lanes. Because new cycle lanes tend not to be  additional designated pathways but lanes on existing roads, it means there is less room on the roads for cars. On another note, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers, UK car production fell in October to the lowest level since 1956.

Cycling advocates have pushed back by claiming that more journeys on bikes keeps people moving and achieves this in an environmentally friendly way.

London also recently introduced an ultra low emission zone (ULEZ), but that is more likely to impact to reduce congestion by pricing out certain vehicles from central London.

Trips into city centres fell year on year in New York and London, up in Germany

As a result of the impact of public health policies, which included working from home and social distancing measures that led to the closure of restaurants and entertainment venues, city centres became quieter. This is reflected in the Inrix data.

Year-on-year trips into downtown New York fell 18%; London saw a drop of 13% in travel into tits city centre, while in Berlin the fall was only 5%.

Interestingly, a number of German cities saw large increases: Dusseldorf and Stuttgart had increases of 16 and 15% respectively. Germany may be paying the price for that today as a fourth wave of Covid virus infections sweep the country.

Less congestion in cities has the perverse effect of leading to more collisions. This is because with less cars on the road, drivers are become more inclined to travel faster. The pick up in speeds means the collisions that do take place also become more deadly.

The UK saw a 26% year-on-year increase in collisions, while in Madrid it was 40%. By contrast the US saw a -2% decline.