Think Montreal traffic is bad? A new index says 137 cities around the world have it worse

Montreal — There is little that unites Montrealers more than complaining about how awful our traffic is.

But what if we were to tell you that 137 cities around the world have it worse?

That's one of the many findings in the ninth annual edition of the Tom Tom Traffic Index, which is put together by the location technology specialist.

According to Tom Tom, Montreal ranks 138th among the 416 cities studied in terms of traffic congestion. Its average congestion level of 29 per cent - up two per cent from 2018 - ties it with another Canadian city just a highway drive away: Ottawa. (Tom Tom calculates congestion level by setting a baseline level of free-flowing traffic per city and comparing it with traffic levels throughout the day).

Montreal wasn't even the Canadian city with the worst traffic congestion: Vancouver - 40th (39 per cent congestion) - and Toronto, in 80th place with 33 per cent, were both found to be way worse.

Among other Canadian cities: Halifax was 213th (25 per cent), London. Ont. was 240th (23 per cent), Winnipeg was 247th (22 per cent), Quebec City was 263rd (22 per cent), Hamilton was 312th (19 per cent), Calgary was 338th (18 per cent), Edmonton was 359th (16 per cent) and Kitchen-Waterloo was 364th (16 per cent).

Among the 416 cities analyzed (across 57 countries on six continents), the worst traffic congestion was found in Bengaluru, India; Manila, Philippines; Bogota, Colombia, Mumbai, India and Pune, India.