By Naewna and Thai Newsroom Reporters
TOMTOM (TOM2), the location technology specialist based in The Netherlands, released an annual report on global traffic trends and of five Thai cities ranked in The TomTom Traffic Index 2024 Hat Yai is highest up on the list and while Bangkok placed fourth it is the second most congested city in the world.
This year’s edition features 500 cities across 62 countries on 6 continents, making it the most robust and complete analysis ever made available to any observer. The TomTom Traffic Index 2024 uses unified metrics to rank these cities based on their average travel time, as well as congestion level. It gives city-by-city information that can help urban planners and policymakers tackle traffic-related challenges and make informed decisions for a better tomorrow.
The five Thai cities listed on The TomTom Traffic Index 2024 are as follows:
– Hat Yai, Songkhla (ranked 102nd): Average travel time per 10km 24 minutes 12 seconds, change from 2023 +20s, congestion level 40%, time lost per year at rush hours 76 hours and ranking 41st in global traffic congestion.
– Chiang Mai (ranked 116th): Average travel time per 10 km 23 minutes 31 seconds, change from 2023 +30s, congestion level 37%, time lost per year at rush hours 72 hours and ranking 78th in global traffic congestion.
– Khon Kaen (ranked 145th): Average travel time per 10km 22 minutes 19 seconds, no change from 2023, congestion level 34%, time lost per year at rush hours 66 hours and ranking 129th in global traffic congestion.
– Bangkok (ranked 161st): Average travel time per 10km 21 minutes 51 seconds, change from 2023 +20s, congestion level 50%, time lost per year at rush hours 96 hours and ranking 2nd in global traffic congestion.
– Nakhon Ratchasima (ranked 184th): Average travel time per 10lkm 22 minutes and 57 seconds, no change from 2023, congestion level 33%, time lost per year during rush hours 65 hours and ranking 144th in global traffic congestion.
Further details of this report are as follows:
In 2024, Barranquilla in Colombia was the city with the lowest average speed. The average speed over the year is 10.3 mph, which means that it takes almost 35 minutes on average to complete a simple 6-mile journey. Three Indian cities feature in the top 5 list of slowest cities. London, the first European city in the ranking, is in 5th position, with an average speed of 11.2 mph in the city. Yet the English capital is only 150th in the congestion ranking, which measures only the dynamic factors of slow speed.
The level of congestion only takes into account the dynamic factors that lower the average speed in a city. With a congestion rate of 52%, Mexico City is the city in which traffic has the greatest impact on the deterioration of journey times compared with ideal traffic conditions. This means that on all routes surveyed throughout the year on the entire road network, journey times are 52% longer than those recorded in Mexico City when traffic was free-flowing.
Because of rush-hour traffic in Lima, Peru, and Dublin, Ireland, motorists in these two cities lost an average of 150 hours in traffic jams (on a typical 6-mile journey, made every working day in the morning and evening) – almost a week’s worth over the year.
CAPTIONS:
Top: Traffic in Hat Yai. Photo: Thai Rath
Front Page traffic congestion in Bangkok. Photo: Thai Rath
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