London Drivers Lose More Than Five Days a Year to Rush-Hour Traffic, TomTom Finds

The average London driver spent more than five full days sitting in rush-hour traffic last year, with the capital once again ranked the slowest city in the world for travel times, according to new research from TomTom.

The sat-nav company found that motorists in London spent an average of 136 hours stuck in traffic over the year, placing the city top of its global congestion ranking for the third consecutive year. On average, a six-mile journey in the capital now takes 35 minutes and seven seconds, an increase of 38 seconds compared with 2024.

Globally, only Barranquilla in Colombia recorded slower average journey times, meaning London remains the most congested capital city in the world.

The findings are based on analysis of 3.65 trillion kilometres of travel data, with London ranking ahead of highly congested cities such as Bangalore and Calcutta in India.

TomTom said much of London’s congestion can be traced back to its historic layout. Marketing director Andy Marchantdescribed the capital’s road network as a “medieval muddle” of narrow streets that were never designed for modern traffic volumes.

“London’s streets were built in the Middle Ages and expanded in the Georgian era, so they simply weren’t designed for the volume and variety of traffic we see today,” he said.

Marchant added that congestion has been exacerbated by more workers returning to offices for four- or five-day weeks, alongside the disruption caused by ongoing Tube strikes. At the same time, changing travel habits are reshaping the capital’s transport network.

“There’s a growing shift towards cycling and alternative forms of transport, while measures such as 20mph speed limits are influencing how people move around the city and how safe those journeys are,” he said.

Despite topping global rankings for travel time, London is only the eighth most congested city in the UK overall. Belfast was named the most congested British city, followed by Edinburgh and Cambridge.

The data comes as City Hall continues to explore measures to reduce traffic in central London, including proposals to pedestrianise Oxford Street, after a one-day trial last September was found to have boosted the local economy.