News / Transport

Bristol is UK’s second worst city for congestion

By Martin Booth  Monday Jan 6, 2025

Bristol drivers are delayed for an average of 65 hours each year.

This makes our city the second most congested city in the UK after London and ahead of Leeds and Manchester.

The figures from 2024 are a five per cent increase from 2023

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The Global Traffic Scorecard from transport analytics company Inrix is based on the length of delays, weighted by the size of each city’s population.

With an average of 101 hours of delays, London is Europe’s most congested city with Istanbul topping the global rankings with an average of 105 hours.

Inrix transportation analyst, Bob Pishue, said: “While the UK did see a slight increase in congestion again this year, overall congestion has remained steady.

“Roadworks in key corridors such as M25 Wisley interchange caused considerable traffic on a main artery into the capital.

“Interestingly it was cities outside of the capital that saw the greatest increase in congestion with Manchester seeing a large increase, up 13 per cent.

“While London only had a modest increase in time lost, it still represented half of the entire country’s delay.”

Main photo: Martin Booth

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