Expect travel delays in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa

TORONTO – A new study suggests Vancouver is the worst city in Canada for gridlock.

TomTom – a Dutch-based company which specializes in navigation and mapping products – issued its fourth annual traffic index on Tuesday.

The study found that in Vancouver, the average person experiences 87 hours of delay time per year, based on a 30 minute daily commute.

“Vancouver doesn’t have a very large highway network, and it is also a city which is surrounded by water on three sides,” said Jocelyn Vigreux, TomTom’s North American president.

TomTom also says traffic shortcuts drivers take to avoid congestion are actually “long cuts,” adding 50 per cent more travel time to journeys.

The study also suggests gridlock on secondary roads is worse than main roads, and commuters around the world spend an average of eight working days a year stuck in traffic.

After Vancouver, the most congested cities in Canada are Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary, Quebec City and Edmonton, according to the index.

In the Americas, Rio de Janeiro – host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics and the upcoming World Cup – tops the list, followed by Mexico City and Sao Paulo. Vancouver placed fifth behind Los Angeles, while Toronto was ninth and Ottawa 12th.

Moscow tops the international list, followed by Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Palermo, Warsaw, Rome, Los Angeles and Dublin.

“There are other things that contribute to congestion that are seldomly thought about,” said Vigreux. “It could be a very laudable strategy to create a lot of cycling lanes or a lot of pedestrian areas in cities. Actually, this is something that’s being done around the world in the most vibrant cities, and this will have somewhat of an impact in congestion.”

Source: The Canadian Press

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