Toronto 9th worst for road congestion in study of major cities

Commuters are reflected in a rearview mirror while sitting in rush hour traffic in Toronto. (J.P. Moczulski / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

A new study released by GPS navigation company TomTom confirms what Toronto drivers already know: the city has big problems with traffic congestion.

Out of more than 50 major cities in Canada and the U.S., Toronto ranked as ninth worst for traffic congestion in the study, which used actual GPS data from vehicles to compare the travel time during non-peak periods with the travel time in peak periods.

The two travel times were then compared and that value was expressed as a percentage.

When it came to Canadian cities, Toronto was second worst. Vancouver had the biggest traffic headaches, ranking second in North America.

The study also found that Thursday is the worst weekday for traffic congestion in Toronto, while Friday is the least congested weekday.

While the study did put Toronto near the top of the list for worst congestion, it said that traffic is actually getting better since TomTom did the same study one year ago.

However, another report commissioned by the Toronto Board of Trade, released in September 2011, found the average commuter spent more than an hour in congested traffic each day.

The Board of Trade has also estimated that traffic gridlock costs the Toronto economy $6 billion in lost productivity every year.

Statistics Canada has also pegged Toronto as the city with the longest commute times in the entire country.

Click here to see the full report.