Istanbul world's second worst city for traffic congestion

PanARMENIAN.Net - Istanbul is the second worst city in the world for traffic congestion after Russia’s capital Moscow, according to a study released by a leading navigation systems company, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Travel times in Turkey’s largest city take on average 55 percent longer that they should, even in relatively less busy hours.

As well as assigning and ranking the overall congestion levels of over 120 cities on different continents, the report also evaluates the congestion levels in cities at different times of the day and on different days of the week.

The congestion rate for Istanbul jumps to 80 percent during rush hours in the morning, TomTom’s report for last year said. The rating during rush hours in the evening is even higher, at 125 percent.

The methodology used in the report compares travel times during non-congested periods with travel times at peak hours. The difference is expressed as a percentage increase in travel time. “We take into account local roads, arterials and highways,” the report said. All data is based on actual GPS-based measurements and for each city the sample size is expressed in total number of measured miles for the period.People in the city lose 118 hours on average stuck in traffic annually, the report calculated.

The general congestion rate stood at 66 percent in Moscow. Warsaw, Marseilles and Palermo followed Istanbul with high congestion rates. The rate for Sydney stands at 33 percent, the highest in Australia. This compared with Europe’s Rome or Stuttgart. Los Angeles is one of the busiest cities in North America, with a rate of 33 percent.