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This won’t come as a surprise to many of you, but for the fourth year in a row, London has been named the most congested city in Europe.
According to a new global traffic analysis by Inrix, London drivers spent a total of 101 hours stuck in gridlock in 2024. It’s no wonder that Londoners are always in such a rush. As per Inrix’s data, this number is increasing every year, up from 97 hours in 2022 and 99 hours in 2023. The analysts estimated this lost time cost London’s four million drivers a total of £3.85 billion, which is equivalent to £942 per driver.
Paris wasn’t far behind London as Europe’s second worst city, with Parisian drivers spending 97 hours in traffic in 2024.
In the UK, Bath was had the second worst traffic with drivers losing 68 hours, and Bristol was third, with drivers wasting 65 hours in gridlock in 2024. Manchester saw the biggest increase in congestion from 2023, rising by 13 percent from 54 to 61.
Every year, traffic analysts at Inrix publish their list of the most congested cities in Europe, but should we take their data at face value? According to a different analysis by Traffic Index, Paris had worse traffic than London in 2024, with the French city being named the most congested city in the world. In this ranking London came in third place, beaten by Paris and Mexico City in second place. Meanwhile, an index by Numbeo compiled from user-contributed data placed London at 88 in the world for traffic in 2024. The UK capital was beaten by Zurich in Switzerland, ranking in 83rd place, and Bucharest in Romania at 82.
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