Traffic in Singapore improves, defying global trend

Singapore, 22 March 2016   TomTom (TOM2) today released the results of the TomTom Traffic Index 2016, the annual report detailing the cities around the world with the most traffic congestion. And for drivers in Singapore, it’s good news as their city is one of the few cities in the world where the traffic congestion level has decreased from 2014 to 2015. Drivers in Singapore can still expect to spend 31% extra travel time stuck in traffic across the day, and up to 59% more time in evening peak – adding up to 126 hours of extra travel time a year.

The TomTom Traffic Index looks at traffic congestion in 295 countries around the world. In the 2015 report, Bangkok led the ranking for the most congested city in Asia, and the second most congested city in the world.  This year, Singapore compares favourably with Bangkok (57% across the day and 114% in the evening peak), where drivers spend an extra 232 hours of travel time stuck in traffic per year.

The most congested city in the TomTom Traffic Index 2016 is Mexico City with an overall congestion level of 59%, followed by Bangkok, and Istanbul (50% across the day and 94% in the evening peak). Singapore is the 45th most congested city in the world.

Chris Kearney, VP TomTom Asia Pacific, said: “The TomTom Traffic Index is released every year to help drivers, cities and transport planners to understand traffic congestion trends but, most importantly, how to improve congestion globally. We really want everybody to think about how they can lower the amount of time they waste in traffic every day – and to realise that we all need to play a part. If even just five per cent of us changed our travel plans, we’d improve travel times on our major highways by up to thirty per cent. Collectively, we can all work together to beat traffic congestion.”

People can find out more about the TomTom Traffic Index, and discover where their home city ranks at www.tomtom.com/trafficindex. There’s also helpful advice on beating traffic congestion, as well as independent analysis. For the first time, a selection of ‘Profile Cities’ provide insight into what they are doing to improve mobility.