News Release from TomTom

TomTom today announces the results of its 2012 Congestion Index, which measures traffic congestion in 161 cities across five continents and compares it to congestion levels in 2011.  The annual Congestion Index also examines the congestion in 59 metropolitan areas with a population of more than 800,000 across North America, and found Los Angeles continued to be the most congested city in North America.

On average, journey times in Los Angeles are 33% longer than when traffic in the city is flowing freely and 77% longer during evening rush hour. TomTom’s Congestion Index, including individual city reports, can be found at www.tomtom.com/congestionindex.

TomTom’s Congestion Index is the world’s most accurate barometer of congestion in urban areas. The Index is uniquely based on real travel time data captured by vehicles driving the entire road network. TomTom’s traffic database contains more than six trillion data measurements and is growing by five billion measurements every day. The average congestion level for all the North American cities analyzed between July and September 2012 is 18%.

The top ten most congested North American cities, ranked by overall Congestion Level, in 2012 were:

• Los Angeles (33%)
• Vancouver (32%)
• Honolulu (30%)
• San Francisco (29%)
• Seattle (26%)
• Toronto (25%)
• San Jose (25%)
• Washington (25%)
• New Orleans (25%)
• Montreal (25%)

"TomTom’s Annual Congestion Index provides accurate insight into the world’s most congested cities,” said Ralf-Peter Schäfer, Head of Traffic at TomTom. “This detailed knowledge of the entire road network, helps businesses and governments make more informed decisions about how best to tackle and avoid congestion. TomTom’s world-class traffic information also helps drivers get to their destinations faster.  Significantly, when used on a large scale, TomTom Traffic has the potential to ease congestion in cities and urban areas by routing drivers away from congested areas”

To download the Congestion Index reports, go to  www.tomtom.com/congestionindex