TomTom has released its 2019 Traffic Index which highlights congestion levels in 416 cities in 57 countries. Traffic congestion has continued to increase over the past decade with 239 of the cities in the index reporting increased levels of congestion between 2018 and 2019. Bengaluru in India anfd Manila in the Philippines recorded the joint-highest congestion levels of any city last year and commuters in both urban areas can expect to spend an average of 71 percent extra travel time stuck in traffic.

The Colombian capital of Bogota comes third with 68 percent congestion while another Indian city, Mumbai, comes fourth with 65 percent. Four of the world's ten most gridlocked cities are in India and Pune is in fifth with 59 percent. Moscow leads Europe in traffic jams and drivers underway in the Russian capital can expect an extra 59 percent of travel time stuck in gridlock. In the United States, Los Angeles has the worst congestion levels but they are still far less than the cities in this infographic at 42 percent.

The only really positive side of congestion is that it's an indicator of a strong economy. It does of course come with a terrible environmental impact in addition to costing commuters considerable amounts of time. Ralf-Peter Schäfer, TomTom's VP of Traffic information, urged policymakers and planners to take immediate action and use the tools available to them to make critical infrastructure decisions in order to alleviate the problem.