Metro Manila traffic ranked world's worst in 2023—what's new?
Metro Manila made it to another list—for having the world's worst traffic in metro area, that is!
Metro Manila jumped a spot, beating Bogota, Colombia—which is now in fifth place—for having the worst traffic congestion among 387 metro areas in the world. This was according to TomTom, a multinational traffic data provider and location technology specialist. It defined metro area as "a circle covering the city and rural areas in close proximity."
The 2023 TomTom Traffic Index revealed that local motorists in Manila spent an average travel time of 25 minutes and 30 seconds per 10 kilometers last year. This is 50 seconds longer than it took to cover the same distance in 2022.
Following Manila are Lima (Peru), Bengaluru (India), Sapporo (Japan), Bogota (Colombia), and Taichung (Taiwan).
Throughout the year, motorists spent 240 hours on the road—117 hours of which were spent crawling through rush-hour traffic at an average speed of 19 kph. In other words, motorists spent four days and 21 hours in traffic, an amount of time TomTom said an individual could have read about 48 books in that period.
Moreover, the Dutch multinational company revealed that last year, Fridays from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. was the worst day and time to be on the road, requiring 35 minutes and 30 seconds to cover 10km.
It also named Manila as the 9th worst traffic congestion in the city centers among 387 cities. TomTom said that the city center is "a circle with a radius of 5 km covering the busiest parts of the city."
Local motorists in 2023 traveled an average of 27 minutes and 20 seconds per 10 km in the city. London, on the other hand, is still "the world's slowest city" with the most congested city center, followed by Dublin, Toronto, Milan, and Lima.
The TomTom Traffic Index "is based on floating car data (FCD) collected from various sources, spanning 551 billion kilometers globally throughout a year." It aims to assess and analyze how traffic has evolved in different cities, by considering factors such as road infrastructure, speed limit, traffic congestion, and flow changes, to determine the average travel time spent in each location.