How much time wasted behind the wheel! Never have Parisian motorists, but also most of those in the major agglomerations of France, put their brakes so hard in traffic jams. The data from the tenth edition of the TomTom Traffic Index global study, a report that examines the traffic conditions of 416 cities in 57 countries around the world and of which we reveal the details in preview, are unquestionable.
If Paris (and the Ile-de-France roads) points to 42nd place of the most congested agglomerations in the world, it unsurprisingly takes first place on the podium of the hexagonal classification, ahead of Marseille, Bordeaux, Grenoble and Nice. The average level of congestion, calculated from an index giving the additional time spent behind the wheel compared to that of smooth traffic, averaged 39% last year compared to 36% in 2018.
This congestion index also increased during morning and evening peak hours last year. Result: the time lost by Ile-de-France motorists on home-work trips is 163 hours, 13 hours more than in 2018! Of the 25 largest French cities analyzed, only four see their traffic jams drop very slightly, according to data compiled day after day thanks to the millions of motorists using the geolocation of TomTom.
Slight progress in some cities
According to the company, which has more than 550 million sources supplying its traffic information service in real time, we find, among the cities that are growing slightly, Marseille, Montpellier, Saint-Etienne or Avignon, in particular thanks to road improvements that allow congestion in city centers, as is the case in Marseille with L2.
Conversely, the horizon of Parisian motorists tends to darken it. In the capital, the past year was marked by the strike in public transport, which greatly impacted the flow of traffic. If the rate of congestion has increased, it is also because of the many projects carried out in the city, in particular the creation of new cycle paths. This work resulted in a permanent reduction in the place of the automobile.
And it is not about to stop. Anne Hidalgo, the mayor (PS) of Paris, announced on Tuesday the removal of half of the surface parking spaces, if she is re-elected in March. Objective: make room for bikes and add 400,000 new kilometers to the existing thousand by 2024.
