Do you waste 12 days of your life every year sitting in traffic?!

Transport intelligence company Inrix has revealed a sometimes unconsidered cost of congestion on Britain’s roads – the time spent sitting in traffic, when of course, we all have better things to be getting on with!

London has been named as the worst area in the UK for congested roads; with drivers spending more than 12 days a year sitting in completely stationery traffic! Congestion has increased by a whopping 40% in the capital across the last four years. A five mile journey by road in the congestion zone takes 25 minutes on average, with TfL buses travelling at an average speed of just 3.8mph! The average speed for other vehicles is 8.3mph.

Inrix hadn’t expected such delays, with their Chief Economist, Graham Cookson admitting that the growth over the last four years has been greater than the company had predicted over the next seventeen!

The congestion in the capital has been blamed on several factors – including vans delivering internet shopping, new segregated cycle lanes, and an increase in the number of minicabs and on-demand taxi vehicles. Of course, better utilising the spare capacity in cars helps take vehicles off the roads – so we advocate doing so!

It’s not just London affected by congestion, either. Whilst you’ll no doubt hear people from all over the country moaning about road conditions, things may be worse than even that indicates. Check out the league table below:

Average hours spent wasted sitting in traffic

Greater London 101
Greater Manchester 51
Belfast 38
Merseyside 37
Birmingham 34
Avon and North Somerset 30
Leeds and Bradford 29
Coventry 28
North Staffordshire 26
Cardiff and the Valleys 25
Portsmouth and Fareham 25
Leicestershire 24
Tyne and Wear 24
Glasgow 21

How much time do you estimate you spend sitting in traffic annually? Are you doing your bit to share space capacity and keep the number of vehicles on the road down? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter!

Author Lex Barber

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