WE’RE ON THE ROAD TO NOWHERE — CITY IS ONE OF WORLD’S WORST CONGESTED
DUBLIN is one of the most congested cities in the world when it comes to traffic delays for motorists.
An international league of shame highlighting the average time lost by motorists when inching along the streets in heavy traffic shows Dublin as third worst in the world.
The average number of hours ‘lost’ by motorists in Dublin traffic congestion last year was 246 hours, travelling at less than 10km per hour.
Only two cities are listed as worse than Ireland’s capital — Bogota is worst with 272 hours and Rome is second worst with 254 hours. The damning data comes from the motor research company Inrix.
The grim figures showed that 200 cities around the world were surveyed so being third worst out of such a big number reflects very badly indeed on our traffic planners.
The three other cities in the ‘worst half dozen’ metropolises were Paris (237 hours), Rostovon-Don, Russia (237 hours), and London (227 hours).
Inrix used a wide number of data generating sources, including in-car sat-nav systems, mobile phone GPS data, and the information from traffic sensors in the cities.
“Dublin has the distinction of having the slowest city centre in Europe, where speeds dip as low as 10kmh,” the report said.
The report revealed that motorists spend the equivalent of 10 days a year sitting in their cars in traffic in Dublin. However, when factors such as population, city size, distance travelled and the costs of motoring were taken into account, the news was not so bad, with Dublin ranked as the 52nd most gridlocked city in the world. Using this array of factors, Moscow was found to be the most congested city in Europe.
Dublin business leaders have long complained about the negative effects of traffic congestion in the city on their businesses.
The report found that at peak times, speeds in Dublin reach around 18kmh.
At off-peak times, it is much better with speeds at around 37kmh. The fastest travelling was done during ‘free-flow’ times, when speeds reach an average of 45kmh.
The Inrix report compared the total number of hours lost in congestion during peak commute periods compared to ‘freeflow’ conditions. Cities from 38 countries around the world were surveyed.
Other cities to fare badly in the survey of average hours lost by motorists per year as a result of congestion were: Milan (226); Bordeaux (223); Mexico City (218); Moscow (210); Belo Horizonte (202); Saint Petersburg (200); Rio de Janeiro (199); Florence (195); Brussels (195).