London is Europe’s most congested city, with drivers sat in traffic an average 101 hours last year
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The capital beats Paris and Dublin, in second and third place, as traffic congestion gets consistently worse. Much like its gridlocked traffic, London’s position as the most congested city in Europe has remained unmoved, with it coming top of the list ahead of Paris and Dublin.
Drivers in the capital spent an average 101 hours sitting in traffic last year, a 2% increase from the previous year, according to the transport analytics company Inrix. There has been a consistent increase in congestion in the city in recent years, from 97 hours in 2022 to 99 hours in 2023.
The A40 Westway in London was judged the most congested road in the UK, with 5pm-6pm being its worst time. Behind London was its Eurostar-connected neighbour Paris, with 97 hours of delays, followed by Dublin in third place with 81 hours. Inrix estimated the cost to London to be about £3.85bn, which is equivalent to £942 for each of the city’s 4 million drivers.
The company said it used diverse sources of data to produce its analysis, including from phones and vehicles. Bristol and Leeds completed the top three most congested cities in the UK, but were lagging some way behind London with 65 hours of delays and 60 hours respectively.
In Manchester, there was a 13% increase year-on-year in delays. It had one more hour lost to gridlock than Leeds but ranked below it, when taking into account the city’s relative size. Birmingham, however, dropped from the second-worst city in the UK to sixth place, after traffic was moving 10% more freely than a year ago.
