Toronto drivers spent 142 hours stuck in rush hour traffic in 2019, which equates to knitting 36 hats and/or watching 126 episodes of Game of Thrones, according to a new traffic report.
The TomTom Traffic Index, which analyzes data annually using internal navigation systems and ranks urban congestion in 416 cities around the world, says that Toronto drivers navigate some of the most congested roads in Canada.
And while we've all had our share of being trapped in a red sea of brake lights here in Toronto, things could definitely be worse.
On a global scale, Bengaluru in India is the highest-ranked, with a 71% congestion level, while Toronto is the 80th most congested city in the world, or the second most in the country, with a 33% congestion level. In Canada, Vancouver took the number one spot, with a 39% congestion level.
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According to the report, it takes Toronto drivers 33% longer to get to their destination than it would during baseline non-congested conditions, which includes if roads were flowing freely or not impacted by congestion, typically during the evening hours.
Moreover, the traffic delays in Toronto increase to about 56% during the morning rush hour and 68% for drivers travelling in the evening rush hour period, which leads to a concerning 142 hours of lost time, or five days and 22-hours.
The report also revealed that congestion in Toronto is 31% worse on highways, as opposed to 34% on non-highways and that the worst time to travel in the city is between 5 pm and 6 pm on Thursdays.
“Travelling after 6 pm on Thursday could save you up to five hours per year for a 30-minute commute,” the index said.
While the global congestion level is about 29%, the level of congestion in Toronto continued to rise for the second consecutive year, pointing out that there is still a lot of work to be done to improve the growing problem.
