New York City may be full of fast walkers, but one thing it may lack is fast drivers–that’s because in a recent study NYC was ranked the most congested city in the U.S., with drivers traveling at an average of just 12 miles per hour during peak times.
The study was created by TomTom Traffic Index and was based on floating car data (FCD). In other words, TomTom looked at a variety of different sources to assess and show how traffic evolved in cities around the globe over the course of 2022.
They looked at travel time, more specifically the average time it took to drive 10 km within different cities, based on various factors including road infrastructure, such as speed limits, and traffic congestion and changes in flow.
Other metrics were also taken into consideration, such as:
- Consumption and emmisions
- Vehicle models
- Fuel prices
- Charging prices
According to the data, it took nearly 25 minutes on average for New Yorkers to drive only six miles in 2022, a 70 second increase compared to 2021.
Closely rivaling, though not beating NYC is Washington, D.C., where travelers can drive six miles five minutes faster than we can, moving at an average speed of 14 mph, compared to our roughly 12mph.
Though hair grippingly frustrating, this news doesn’t exactly come as a surprise to us.
A December 2022 study named NYC the worst city for driving in the U.S. based on a number of factors including:
- Congestion level
- Number of traffic jams & traffic jam length
- Hours lost during congestion
- Driving speeds
- Distracted driving fatalities
So if you’ve ever wondered why most NYers don’t even own a car or have a license, this is most definitely an attributing factor.
One thing’s for sure–with how congested NYC is, we’ll stick to walking!
The full study can be found here.