If you think you spend a disproportionate amount of time fuming about bumper-to-bumper traffic in Ottawa, it’s not just your imagination.
By Adam Kveton
A new worldwide study claims the average Ottawa driver spends 31.5 hours in congested traffic in a year.
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That makes Ottawa the fourth-worst Canadian city for traffic congestion in the country.
According to the study by Inrix, a vehicle-connectivity and analytics company, Ottawa has it worse than Vancouver, Quebec City, Victoria, Edmonton and Calgary — despite having a smaller population than Calgary and Vancouver — but better than Montreal, Toronto and St. John’s, according to the study.
The rankings were based on the hours the average driver spends in congested traffic.
On average, drivers in Ottawa spend 11 per cent of their total driving time in congestion.
In North America, Ottawa ranks 36th, and 150th in the world.
Los Angeles is the most congested city worldwide, followed by Moscow and New York, the report says.
Inrix released its Global Traffic Scorecard Monday, claiming it’s the largest study ever of its kind. The scorecard ranks 1,064 cities in 38 countries.
U.S. cities accounted for 11 of the top 25 most congested.
In reply to a tweet asking for thoughts on Ottawa’s ranking, Mayor Jim Watson replied: “it’s one more reason why we are moving ahead with phase 2 of LRT – transit is congestions greatest foe!”
This story originally appeared in Metro News.
