BENGALURU: Although traffic congestion in Bengaluru came down by 20 per cent last year, the city still made it to the list of top 10 cities in the world where vehicles move at snail's pace.Bengaluru ranked sixth, and is second in the country after Mumbai, on the TomTom Traffic Index released on Wednesday. The report details the traffic situation in 2020 in over 400 cities in 57 countries. The city with the worst traffic congestion was Moscow, followed by Mumbai, Bogota, Manila, Istanbul and Bengaluru. New Delhi stood at number 8.
In 2020, Bengaluru saw an average decrease of 20% in congestion, and a 35% and 32% average drop in traffic snarls during the morning and evening rush respectively, the report said. It topped in congestion even during the lockdown, compared to Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune.
Bengaluru saw 147 days with low traffic last year, and the worst traffic day was January 6, a Monday, with the highest average daily congestion of 89%. January was the most congested month of 2020 at 70%, while April was the least congested month at 6% congestion due to the lockdown.
The report is based on TomTom’s traffic data, which is powered by 600 million connected devices. Werner van Huyssteen, general manager, India, TomTom, said, “Last year, we announced that both global and India congestion levels in 2019 had increased for the ninth consecutive Traffic Index. In 2020, we saw a vastly different picture. From lockdowns to closed borders, people's movement changed, and it changed very fast.”
“Although traffic congestion in India was down in 2020, it’s not going to become a trend unless we take action. We might even see traffic levels shoot up again as people get back to work and old routines. That’s why now is the time that India’s city planners, policy makers, employers and drivers must take stock of what they will do to make the roads less congested in future,” he added.