GPS company TomTom claims KL drivers spend an average of 159 hours on the road in 2022, 75 of which due to jams

Traffic jams are without a doubt, the bane of every driver regardless of where they happen to be around the world. And Malaysia is no exception to this rule, with congestion plaguing many major metropolitan parts of the country, especially within the Klang Valley area during peak hours and holiday seasons.

But just how bad is our traffic as compared with other countries around the world?

Malaysia ranks 143 out of 389 cities globally for traffic quality, claims GPS company TomTom

Well according to Dutch GPS technology and consumer electronics company TomTom, Kuala Lumpur ranks 143 out of a total of 389 cities across 56 countries in 6 continents that were surveyed for their latest 2022 TomTom Traffic Index!

Based upon their findings, which were obtained through trip data anonymously collected from drivers within larger metropolitan areas, the average travel time that a Malaysian will need to drive a distance of 10 kilometres in 2022 is 16 minutes and 10 seconds, up by 1 minute and 40 seconds from 2021.

And on average, a single Malaysian driver spent 159 hours on the road in 2022, 75 of which were attributed to traffic congestion. To put that into context, TomTom claims that time could be used to read approximately 31 books.

Consequently, this also means that we emit on average 833kg of Co2 per driver per year, of which 180kgs are again, blamed on traffic jams. The report further alleges that it would take 83 trees a year to absorb those carbon emissions.

As for fuel consumption, the average Malaysian vehicle consumed RM1,023 worth of fuel, RM221 of which was wasted due to being stuck in jams. That’s equivalent to about 7 full tanks of fuel on average.

The report even indicates that Thursdays were by far the worst days of the week to travel by car for Malaysians in 2022, especially between 6.00pm to 7.00pm, as travelling a distance of 10km took 25 minutes on average!

And in case you were wondering, TomTom claims that April 25th was the worst day to travel on the road as drivers had to spend 21 minutes on average to travel a distance of 10km.

How do we compare globally and regionally?

However, you may be surprised to know that TomTom has declared London city to have the worst traffic in the world back in 2022, as it estimated that the average driver required 36 minutes and 20 seconds to travel a distance of 10km! What’s more, average London motorists spend 325 hours a year being stuck in traffic.

This was followed by Bengaluru, India in second place as well as Dublin, Ireland in third. Where our Southeast Asian neighbours are concerned, only Manila, Philippines cracked the Top 10 by placing number 9. Bangkok, Thailand ranked number 57, while our Causeway neighbours Singapore placed 127.

TomTom explains that their index was compiled based upon the use of floating car data (FCD), which is obtained through a range of different sources to create traffic services for their clients. In the case of the Traffic Index, a representative sample of data spanning 543 billion km was used to assess and demonstrate the evolution of traffic globally back in 2022.

Among the metrics factored into the final index rating include travel time, fuel consumption and emissions, vehicle types or models, as well as fuel and charging prices.

Check out the full report by tapping here!

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