Every year, TomTom publishes a global ranking of the world’s most congested cities, and 2020 was no exception. However, with 2020 defined by the Covid-19 pandemic, the first and clearest takeaway is the sharp fall in traffic levels compared with 2019 across much of the world.
Portugal, unsurprisingly, also saw traffic drop. In fact, all the cities recorded lower congestion, with Lisbon showing the steepest decrease and even losing its status as the country’s most congested city to… Porto.
How the TomTom congestion index works
The TomTom ranking is expressed as a percentage, which represents the extra travel time drivers accumulate over the year. For example, if a city scores 25, it means that, on average, drivers take 25% longer to complete a journey than they would under free-flowing conditions.
Traffic in Portugal
Overall, in 2020, Lisbon’s congestion level stood at 23%, the biggest drop in Portugal (down 10 percentage points, equivalent to a 30% reduction).
Porto, which had the highest traffic levels in Portugal in 2020, recorded a congestion level of 24% (meaning the average journey time in Porto is 24% higher than it would be without traffic). Even so, the figure for the Invicta city still reflects a 23% decrease compared with 2019.
| Position | City | Congestion 2020 | Congestion 2019 | Difference (value) | Difference (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Porto | 24 | 31 | -7 | -23% |
| 2 | Lisbon | 23 | 33 | -10 | -30% |
| 3 | Braga | 15 | 18 | -3 | -17% |
| 4 | Coimbra | 12 | 15 | -3 | -20% |
| 5 | Funchal | 12 | 17 | -5 | -29% |
And in the rest of the world?
In a ranking covering more than 400 cities across 57 countries, 2020 had one shared pattern: traffic fell. Globally, the five Portuguese cities listed above sit in the following positions:
- Porto - 126th;
- Lisbon - 139th;
- Braga - 320th;
- Coimbra - 364th;
- Funchal - 375th.
Porto and Lisbon in the global TomTom ranking
Even with lower congestion in 2020, Porto and Lisbon still placed worse than other, much larger cities such as Shanghai (152nd), Barcelona (164th), Toronto (168th), San Francisco (169th) or Madrid (316th).
According to this TomTom index, only 13 cities worldwide saw traffic worsen:
- Chongqing (China) + 1%
- Dnipro (Ukraine) + 1%
- Taipei (Taiwan) + 2%
- Changchun (China) + 4%
- Taichung (Taiwan) + 1%
- Taoyuang (Taiwan) + 4%
- Tainan (Taiwan) + 1%
- Izmir (Turkey) + 1%
- Ana (Turkey) +1 %
- Gaziantep (Turkey) + 1%
- Leuven (Belgium) +1%
- Tauranga (New Zealand) + 1%
- Wollongong (New Zealand) + 1%
As for the five most congested cities in 2020, there was good news for India: only one city from the country appears in the Top 5, whereas in 2019 three Indian cities were among the most congested on the planet:
- Moscow, Russia- 54%, #1
- Mumbai, India - 53%, #2
- Bogotá, Colombia - 53%, #3
- Manila, Philippines - 53%, #4
- Istanbul, Turkey - 51%, #5
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