Stuck in London traffic? You're not alone. Drivers in the city Centre are crawling, according to TomTom's data. It takes a whopping 37 minutes and 20 seconds to cover just 10 kilometers, making London the world's slowest city for drivers for the second year running. The culprit? Widespread 20-mph (32-kph) speed limits, which keep traffic at a snail's pace. This isn't just a local issue, with London beating out 386 other cities across 55 countries for sluggishness.
As per TomTom, the duration was one minute longer than in 2022, making it the lengthiest among the 387 cities studied across 55 countries. This places London at the forefront of the slow city centre ranking for the second consecutive year.
Dublin, the capital of Ireland, came in second place with average trips of 10 kilometers taking around 29 minutes and 30 seconds. Toronto in Canada was next with 29 minutes, followed by Milan in Italy with 28 minutes and 50 seconds, and Lima in Peru with 28 minutes and 30 seconds.
In the UK, Manchester ranked second with 23 minutes and 30 seconds, followed by Liverpool (22 minutes and 50 seconds), Bristol (22 minutes and 40 seconds), and Edinburgh (21 minutes and 30 seconds).
Last year, travel times increased in 21 out of 25 UK cities analyzed by TomTom. The analysis focused on journeys within a 5-kilometer radius of city centers.
The company's head of government and regulatory affairs, Stephanie Leonard, told The Independent: "London really is the slowest place in the world to drive a car. Especially in the core city centre, you don't have maximum speed limits of 50mph or higher; it's a maximum of 20mph. You don't have the infrastructure for driving very quickly."
