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2. Istanbul
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Straddling Europe and Asia, Istanbul has the second worst congestion in the world, with the average journey taking 57% longer compared to times when there's less traffic on the road.
Nick Cohn, TomTom's traffic congestion expert, explains that large bodies of water in the heart of a city tend to create traffic jams, with drivers unable to avoid using popular, busy bridges. The Bosphorus strait through the heart of Turkey's commercial capital certainly creates problems for drivers.
Source: The TomTom Traffic Index
The TomTom Traffic Index is based on real travel time data captured by vehicles driving across the entire road network. TomTom's traffic database contains over nine trillion data measurements. The Traffic Index compares travel times during non-congested periods with travel times during peak hours. Cities with the highest rankings in the index experienced the sharpest increases in travel times between non-congested periods and peak periods. Cities in Asia were not included in the index due to insufficient data.
The TomTom Traffic Index is based on real travel time data captured by vehicles driving across the entire road network. TomTom's traffic database contains over nine trillion data measurements. The Traffic Index compares travel times during non-congested periods with travel times during peak hours. Cities with the highest rankings in the index experienced the sharpest increases in travel times between non-congested periods and peak periods. Cities in Asia were not included in the index due to insufficient data.
- Last updated January 03 2014 11:06 AM ET
