Every year Tom Tom prepares a world ranking of the most congested cities , and 2019 was no exception. To elaborate it, the company uses the real data of its users, and it is there that we discover that Lisbon remains “made of stone and lime” as the city with the most traffic in Portugal — a status it has maintained for many years.
It is not only the most congested city in Portugal, it also manages to be the city with the most traffic in the entire Iberian Peninsula, that is, traffic is worse than in cities like Madrid or Barcelona, which are larger than the capital of our country.
The ranking defined by Tom Tom reveals a percentage value, which is equivalent to the amount of extra travel time that drivers have to make per year — Lisbon, by presenting a congestion level of 33% means that, on average, travel time will be 33% longer than expected in traffic-free conditions.
real data
The data collected comes from the users of Tom Tom's systems themselves, so the traffic-free travel times that serve as a reference do not take into account speed limits, but rather the time that drivers actually spent on a particular journey.
The 33% registered as a level of congestion in Lisbon in 2019, despite not being very high when compared to other world metropolises, is not good news either, as it is 1% more compared to the previous year — traffic is getting worse… Despite from the increase seen, its overall position even improved, dropping from 77th place to 81st place (here, the further down the table we are, the better).
The 33% recorded also translates into 43 minutes spent daily in the middle of traffic by Lisboners, totaling 158 hours per year.
Unfortunately, Lisbon was not the only Portuguese city to see its traffic increase from 2018 to 2019. The city of Porto saw its level of congestion rise from 28% to 31%, which made it rise 13 places in the world rankings — it's now in 108th place.
Keep the five cities with the most traffic in Portugal, that is, those that Tom Tom has data on:
| World Pos. | 2018 variation | City | congestion level | 2018 variation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 81 | -4 | Lisbon | 32% | +1% |
| 108 | +13 | Harbor | 31% | +3% |
| 334 | +8 | Braga | 18% | +2% |
| 351 | -15 | Funchal | 17% | +1% |
| 375 | -4 | Coimbra | 15% | +1% |
And in the rest of the world?
In this ranking of Tom Tom are included 416 cities in 57 countries . In 2019, according to this Tom Tom index, 239 cities in the world saw their traffic worsen, having only decreased in 63 cities.
Among the five most congested cities by level, three of the cities belong to India, an unenviable position:
- Bengaluru, India — 71%, #1
- Manila, Philippines — 71%, #2
- Bogota, Colombia — 68%, #3
- Mumbai, India — 65%, #4
- Pune, India — 59%, #5
Among the five cities with the least traffic worldwide, four are in the United States of America: Dayton, Syracuse, Akron and Greensboro-High Point. Cadiz, in Spain, is the missing city in the quintet, occupying the penultimate position in the ranking with a level of congestion of only 10%, the same verified in North American cities, except for one.
Greensboro-High Point, with a 9% congestion level, was the least congested city on the planet, according to data from Tom Tom.