Thursday, June 25, 2026

Top 10 most congested cities globally: Report

Leading the park is London, positioned as the city with the world’s highest congestion.

• March 10, 2023
Traffic congestion
Traffic congestion used to illustrate the story[Credit: BBC]

A report by StressFreeCarRental.com has listed the top 10 most congested cities in the world. The study by the car rental experts focused on cities in the world with very high congestion causing drivers in those cities to spend most of their time sitting in their cars. 

The firm crunched their numbers and arrived at the list below as the top ten cities with the most congestion in the world:

London 

Bengaluru 

Dublin 

Sapporo 

Milan

Pune

Bucharest 

Lima 

Manila 

Bogota 

Leading the park is London, positioned as the city with the world’s highest congestion. Motorists in London are spending almost 40 minutes to travel just 10 kilometres, according to the study. Drivers in London travel at an average of just 14 kph during rush hour. 

The second most congested city is Bengaluru in India. Motorists in Bengaluru drive at an average speed of 18 kph at peak periods.

Dublin in Ireland comes in third with some of the busiest roads in the world. Motorists in Dublin travel at an average speed of 17kph. 

In the far east, Sapporo in Japan is the city with the highest congestion and the fourth highest congestion in the world. Motorists in Sapporo travel at an average speed of 19kph. It takes 27.4 mins to travel a distance of 10km

Milan, Italy comes in as the city with the fifth worst congestion in the world. Milan is the most congested city in continental Europe with drivers travelling at just 18kph on average. 

Pune, India, and Bucharest, Romania rank as the sixth and seventh worst congested cities in the world, taking an average of 27.2 minutes to drive 10 kilometres in the respective country. 

Lima in Peru is the city with the eighth worst congestion in the world. It is also the most congested city in South America. Motorists in Lima travel at an average speed of 18kph.

Manilla in the Philippines comes in as the city with the ninth most congestion. Motorists travel at an average speed of 20kph. 

Bogota in Colombia makes the top 10 list as a highly congested city too. It takes motorists in Bogota 26.2 mins to travel 10km. Drivers travel at an average speed of 19kph. 

A spokesperson for StressFreeCarRental.com stated that the list explained a difference in levels of investment in improving roads by the various cities involved. 

“It is surprising not to see some of the world’s biggest cities on the list — Milan ranking above New York is surprising when you consider the population and congestion reputation in the city.

“What we might be seeing is the result of differing levels of investment into improving roads and public transport from city to city.

“As we try to meet targets on pollution and emissions, leaders across the world need to invest more time and money into helping the traffic flow more freely.

“This might involve bringing in more congestion charges for motorists, pumping more funding into improving roads as well as public transport systems, to tackle congestion across the globe,” the spokesperson explained. 

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