LONDON, Feb 16 ― London's city centre is the slowest moving zone for cars, which cover just 14 km/h during rush hour, according to TomTom's Traffic Index 2022. In the UK capital, as in many other major cities, traffic jams are a source of increased fuel costs, but also of CO2 emissions.

London holds the record for the slowest city centre speed. In 2022, it took just over 36 minutes to travel just 10km. According to TomTom, the average speed in the UK capital is about 25km/h, but drops to just 14km/h during rush hour. After London, Bangalore (29'10”) in India and Dublin (28'30”) in Ireland have the slowest-moving journeys.

Traffic jams inevitably mean increased fuel consumption. With the rise in fuel prices, this translates into a worldwide average cost increase of 27 per cent for gasoline cars and 44 per cent for diesel cars. TomTom calculated that the average cost for 10,000 kilometres driven in Hong Kong was €1,986 (RM9,382) for a gasoline car (+14per cent in one year) and €1,511 for a diesel (+22 per cent).

The other consequence of traffic jams is, of course, CO2 emissions, which also soar. TomTom estimates that a 20km round trip from home to work in London produces 1,133kg of CO2. This is followed by Paris (1,092kg) and Manila (1,047kg).

The Traffic Index TomTom 2022 covers 389 cities in 56 countries. The data comes from more than 600 million connected devices, starting with in-vehicle navigation systems and smartphones, using TomTom applications. In total, data from 58 billion hours of driving were collected. ― ETX Studio