The Mayor of Bristol is disputing a survey proclaiming Bristol as Britain’s traffic jam capital with the country’s slowest moving rush-hour vehicles.
George Ferguson said the new figures released by sat-nav firm TomTom counted delivery vehicles which make several drop-offs during peak periods. These were counted as separate journeys by TomTom, adding to Bristol’s tally, yet the city council’s own traffic control centre showed the true picture.
According to TomTom, Bristol comes ahead of London, with its congestion charge, in an international study of the slowest moving traffic.
Car journeys in Bristol are 32% longer than they should be with free-flowing traffic, according to the study.
Only Belfast, where journeys are 32.1% longer, ensures Bristol is not named the congestion capital of the UK.
Journey times in London are 27.5% longer than they should be, while Leeds/Bradford and Nottingham make up the rest of the top 5 for traffic jams.
The findings are made in the 2012 Congestion Index, based on 5bn pieces of data from TomTom.
Ralf-Peter Schafer from the firm said: “This detailed knowledge of the entire road network, helps businesses and governments make more informed decisions about how best to tackle and avoid congestion.
“Our traffic database contains over six trillion data measurements. This helps us determine which routes are the least busy and what times of day are best.”
But Mayor Ferguson said the answer was to invest in measures that helped commuters use alternatives to the car – not be widening roads for more cars.
For frustrated Bristol commuters, there is always the relief that they are not travelling in the Russian capital, Moscow, named the world’s most congested city.
The average journey is a painstaking 66% slower than it should be, while in Istanbul it is 55% and in Warsaw, 42%.
Marseille, Palermo, Paris, Rome, Stuttgart, Sydney and Los Angeles are also worse for drivers than anywhere in Britain.
