Every year Tom Tom compiles a world ranking of the world's most congested cities and 2020 was no exception. However, in a 2020 marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, the first observation is the significant drop in traffic levels compared to 2019 all over the world.
Obviously, Portugal did not escape this traffic drop and the truth is that all cities suffered a reduction in traffic levels, with Lisbon suffering the biggest drop and even losing the first place as the most congested city in the country to… Porto .
The ranking defined by Tom Tom reveals a percentage value, which is equivalent to the amount of time spent traveling more than drivers have to make per year. For example: if a city has a value of 25, it means that, on average, drivers take 25% longer to complete a journey than they would if there was no traffic.
transit in Portugal
In total, in 2020, the level of congestion in Lisbon was 23%, a figure that corresponds to the largest drop in traffic in the country (-10 percentage points, which corresponds to a 30% drop).Subscribe to our newsletter
In Porto, the city with the most traffic in Portugal in 2020, the level of congestion was 24% (that is, on average, travel time in Porto will be 24% longer than expected under traffic-free conditions). Even so, the value presented by the city Invicta represents a drop of 23% compared to 2019.
| Position | City | congestion 2020 | Congestion 2019 | difference (value) | Difference (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harbor | 24 | 31 | -7 | -23% |
| two | Lisbon | 23 | 33 | -10 | -30% |
| 3 | Braga | 15 | 18 | -3 | -17% |
| 4 | Coimbra | 12 | 15 | -3 | -20% |
| 5 | Funchal | 12 | 17 | -5 | -29% |
And in the rest of the world?
In a ranking where more than 400 cities from 57 countries in 2020 there was a common denominator: the drop in traffic. Worldwide, the five Portuguese cities identified are positioned in the following ranking positions:
- Porto — 126th;
- Lisbon — 139th;
- Braga — 320th;
- Coimbra — 364th;
- Funchal — 375th.
Porto and Lisbon in 2020, for example, despite having been less congested, still had a worse result than other cities, much bigger, such as Shanghai (152nd), Barcelona (164th), Toronto (168th), San Francisco (169th) or Madrid (316th).
According to this TomTom index, only 13 cities in the world have seen their traffic worsen:
- Chongqing (China) + 1%
- Dnipro (Ukraine) + 1%
- Taipei (Taiwan) + 2%
- Changchun (China) + 4%
- Taichung (Taiwan) + 1%
- Taoyuang (Taiwan) + 4%
- Tainan (Taiwan) + 1%
- Izmir (Turkey) + 1%
- Ana (Turkey) +1 %
- Gaziantep (Turkey) + 1%
- Leuven (Belgium) +1%
- Tauranga (New Zealand) + 1%
- Wollongong (New Zealand) + 1%
Regarding the five cities with the most traffic in 2020, there is good news for India, only one city in that country is in the Top 5, when in 2019 there were three of the most congested Indian cities on the planet:
- Moscow, Russia—54% #1
- Bombay, India — 53%, #2
- Bogota, Colombia — 53%, #3
- Manilha, Philippines — 53%, #4
- Istanbul, Turkey — 51%, #5