Moscow traffic – no longer the world’s most congested

Los Angeles is the world’s new reigning champion for the title of most congested city. According to research by Inrix, in 2016, LA residents spent 104 hours in traffic jams, whereas for Moscow the figure was 91 hours. In 2015, the title of the world’s most congested city went to the Russian capital.

Third place in the 2016 ranking went to New York City, and the top five also includes San Francisco and Bogota. In eighth place, wedged between London and Atlanta, finished the small Russian city of Magnitogorsk in the Chelyabinsk Region (1,000 miles to the east of Moscow) with its small population of 417,000.  

The other Russian cities on the congestion ranking are the small city of Kansk in Krasnoyarsk Territory (2,700 miles east of Moscow) with a population of 90,000, and Krasnodar (840 miles south of Moscow) with a population of 1.3 million. They took the 20th and 21st places in the ranking, respectively. The 27th place was claimed by Sochi on the Black Sea (1,000 miles south of Moscow) with a population of 364,000.

Overall, the ranking is dominated by American cities. Inrix attributes this to economic stability in the U.S., rising employment, urban sprawl, and low gasoline prices. It predicts this trend will continue in 2017.

The INRIX 2016 Traffic Scorecard analyzed congestion in 1,064 cities in 38 countries – the largest ever study of its kind.

Read more: By air, land and sea: Putin’s modes of transport

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