Melbourne and Sydney have worse traffic congestion than New York, less comprehensive public transport networks than Lisbon and more traffic pollution than Mexico City.

That’s according to a new report looking at mobility in 38 of the world’s largest metropolises.

Overall, Copenhagen came out on top while Sao Paulo languished at the bottom of the Urban Mobility Index released by navigation data firm Here Technology.

The index looked at a series of factors including traffic flow, public transport systems and emissions.

And for the two Australian cities in the index, it wasn’t great news. Overall, Melbourne ranked 20th worst out of 38 cities. Sydney fared even worse at 30, placing it only slightly better than Los Angeles for transport mobility.

“Australian cities suffer from traffic congestion (and) more needs to be done,” said Here Technology’s Ross Caldow.

The company used data from mobile handsets and connected vehicles, among other sources, to see how slow cities really were.

SNARLED UP SYDNEY

The most traffic jam free city was the Finnish capital of Helsinki. There, only 16 minutes is lost to delays for every 100 kilometres driven. In the peaks just 2 per cent of roads are congested. Zurich, Berlin, Copenhagen and Madrid rounded out the top five least congested urban areas.

Melbourne found itself in the bottom third of cities for congestion. For every 100km driven, 35 minutes was lost to congestion while 9 per cent of roads were regularly full.

But if you think sitting stationary on Punt Road is a pain, spare a thought for those motorists on Parramatta Road in Sydney. In the Harbour City, 11 per cent roads are clogged and 40 minutes are lost for every 100km driven.

New York City is hardly a paradise of free flowing roads but the traffic flows considerably faster than either of Australia’s two largest cities.

“As much as Melburnians complain about traffic flow, people in Sydney seem to be doing it slightly tougher,” said Mr Caldow who is Here’s infrastructure specialist.

But at least Sydneysiders fare better than motorists in India’s largest city Mumbai where almost a minute was lost in congestion for every kilometre driven.

But, while commuters may grumble, a recent report by think tank the Grattan Institute found Australia’s population boom has had little impact, as the distances people now commute and the time of that journey had barely increased in five years.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Mr Caldow told news.com.au the index was a useful tool to see how fast cities were actually moving.

“It’s important for both government and private organisation to have greater insights into how our cities are performing based on the provision of infrastructure public policies,” he said.

“The good news is that our urban cities perform very well in terms of public transport density but in Australia we do suffer from traffic congestion and traffic flow issues and that’s being addressed (with more infrastructure) but more can be done.”

On public transport, the index looked at how far it takes to get to the nearest transport stop and how frequent services are. Here, Australia did indeed perform better.

Of the 38 cities, London had the most comprehensive network, Melbourne was in 11th position and Sydney 21st on the table.

Low emissions zones have been popping up worldwide. These are areas in major towns and cities where older, more polluting, vehicles are banned or a hefty charge is placed on them when they enter the zone.

Almost the entirely of London, Brussels, Vienna and Mexico City are now low emission zones. But, in common with around two-thirds of the cities surveyed, not a skerrick of such a zone exists in either Melbourne or Sydney.

“For Australia, the index provides some good pointers around the work of European cities like Helsinki and Zurich and some of the polices that have resulted in more favourable traffic results,” said Mr Caldow.

But while Sydney was in the midst of a motorway building extravaganza, he said whacking down more asphalt and slicing through suburbs with new freeways wasn’t necessarily the answer.

“The index is about looking at the network in its entirety — not just where but how we drive.”

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL FOR ROADS

Earlier this year, one of Sydney’s top transport bureaucrats said radical action needed to be taken to banish congestion — and that didn’t mean more roads. `

Niroshan Jeyarajah, a senior manager at Transport for NSW, told an infrastructure conference in August that control of vehicles could gradually pass from drivers to a centralised control body which, like air traffic control, could decide when the vehicle should enter the road network.

Given jams are exacerbated by more cars entering roads, you could find yourself unable to even leave your driveway.

“We could restrict vehicles entering the network if it’s going to cause congestion, so people may have to wait in their car park.”

But there was a flip side, he said. “Once in the network you’ll get to your destination with a certain level of assurance.”

Mr Jeyarajah said the price of snarl ups in Sydney was $6.1 billion a year now and by 2031 would be $14.8 billion as the population grew.