Britain’s most congested roads have been revealed, with Londoners suffering the worst traffic in the world.
Traffic delays spiked in 2022 following the pandemic recovery, pushing commuting costs back up and meaning the average UK driver lost 80 hours to congestion.
Roads in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Belfast and Bristol are among some of the busiest in the UK, causing long delays.
The average London driver lost £1,377 in congestion in 2022, while drivers across the country missed out on £707.
London topped the global list of cities for the second year in a row, with the average driver in the capital city losing 156 hours – nearly a week – to traffic.
The places where motorists spend the most time waiting in traffic have been revealed, with London topping the list by miles
Five of the busiest routes in the UK were found in London and included Mordern Hall Road, Peckham Hill Street and Falloden Way (file image)
Delays increased in 72 per cent of the UK’s urban areas compared to 2021, according to the report by transportation analyst Bob Pishue in the INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard.
The report said that hybrid work had increased from 13 per cent to 24 per cent over the course of the year, while working fully from home dropped from 22 per cent to 14 per cent.
This meant more people were commuting to city centres than during the pandemic.
Commuting in London cost an average driver £1,377 in lost time, whereas a similar driver in Bristol lost £805.
Drivers in Manchester lost an average of £742.
While the average British commuter pays £707 in lost time, they also paid £122 more for fuel due to spiralling oil prices.
The average UK driver lost 80 hours due to traffic congestion last year – up 7 hours from last year but down 35 hours from 2019.
For commuters in some cities there was good news.
Exeter, Cambridge and Cheltenham dropped out of the ten busiest cities in the UK.
The five most congested roads in the UK can all be found in the capital.
Morden Hall Road is the busiest and peaks at 5pm, causing an average delay of 12 minutes.
Peckham Hill Street and Falloden Way also cause delays of more than 10 minutes for each use and are also busiest during the afternoon rush hour.
Merton High Street and Ravensbourne Road come in at fourth and fifth on the list of busiest roads.
Drivers in London faced the worst congestion in the world, losing 156 hours or six and a half days to traffic delays in 2022 (file image)
Outside of London, the busiest road can be found in Birmingham on the A45 East.
England’s second city takes four of the ten spots on the busiest roads list, including the A435 from Haden Circus to Wynfield Gardens and the A45 West.
Leeds comes in second with the A6177 from Bolton Road o Great Horton Road causing delays of 8 minutes on average.
Other roads on the list are found in Edinburgh on the A902 West, Sheffield with the A61 from Moore Street roundabout,
Moore Street in Sheffield is where former BBC presenter Dan Walker was knocked off his bike last month.
While London tops the list of most congested cities in the world, no other UK city comes in the top ten.
Chicago (155 hours) and Paris (138 hours) make up the rest of the top three most congested cities, with Boston (134 hours) and New York (117 hours) close behind.
Author of the report, transport expert Bob Pishue, said: ‘It is great to see civic and commercial life returning to normal, but unfortunately, we’re seeing congestion inching closer to, if not exceeding, pre-pandemic levels.
‘We must manage congestion while improving mobility and accessibility in cities to avoid it hurting economic recovery and impacting the quality of life of commuters and residents.’
