NEWS: TomTom Traffic Index Survey Reveals UK's Worst Cities

How much time do you think you spend stuck in traffic a year? And which cities in the UK are the worst for the misery of gridlock? Well, TomTom has the answers, from a recent Traffic Index survey – revealing British commuters are spending nine working days a year stuck in traffic. Ouch!
The survey out today reveals:

Traffic jams in 11 out of 17 of Britain's biggest cities have got worse in the past year. Cities where congestion levels have gone up since this time last year include Belfast, Brighton, London, Manchester, Leicester, Sheffield, Liverpool and Newcastle.
Only Edinburgh, Leeds-Bradford and Nottingham have seen congestion levels improve. In others such as Bristol, Birmingham and Glasgow congestion levels have remained just as bad in the past 12 months.
The TomTom Traffic Index shows that Belfast remains the most congested city in the UK, with journey times up to 88 per cent longer in morning peak times and 32 per cent throughout the day.
Second is Bristol with journey times up to 66 per cent longer in evening peak times, followed by Brighton where travelling during rush hour takes 45 per cent longer than usual.
Despite the congestion charge, driving in London now takes more time than last year with drivers enduring rush-hour journey times of up to 60 per cent longer than non-peak times. Over the course of a day, driving in London takes 29 per cent longer than it would if traffic were free-flowing, making the capital the fifth most congested city in the UK – just behind Edinburgh.
Sat nav firm TomTom analysed more than nine trillion pieces of data worldwide to compile its traffic index, which showed that Moscow remains the most congested city globally, followed by Istanbul and Rio de Janeiro.
“We are seeing a clear pattern which shows that congestion levels increase as economies emerge from recession. The traditional responses to tackling congestion, like building new roads or widening existing ones are no longer proving effective. The way traffic is managed needs significant change,” says TomTom's Chief Executive Officer, Harold Goddijn.
The TomTom Traffic Index is the world’s most accurate barometer of traffic congestion in 169 cities across six continents. It compares travel times during non-congested hours (free flow) with travel times in peak hours. The Index takes into account local roads and highways.
“The findings indicate that real-time traffic information has the potential to ease congestion in urban areas by routing drivers away from gridlock, and help commuters to make smarter decisions,” commented Goddijn.
The TomTom Traffic Index shows that across the UK, typical journey times take 23 per cent longer in morning and evening rush hours. Cardiff has seen the biggest increase in congestion in the past year, followed by Portsmouth and Brighton.
Contrary to popular belief, the average driver in London does not experience the most extra travel time due to congestion - those in Belfast, Bristol, Brighton and Edinburgh are in worse shape. While those cities are smaller, congestion adds relatively more travel time to driving trips than it does in London.
Belfast, Bristol and Edinburgh all top London when it comes to evening rush hour commuting. In Belfast an average morning commute travel time can be almost doubled by congestion. With new bus lanes, commuters may have better options during peak periods.
Bristol has the highest proportion of people cycling to work in Britain and that may be the best option, especially in the centre.

How depressing! Try getting one of the latest TomTom GO 6000's like us… it's helping us avoid traffic hell all over the place. Ace!

NEWS: Istanbul to Rotterdam: 50 City Stop-Start Index Unveiled

TomTom and Castrol have just revealed the results of a survery of 50 global cities – to highlight which suffer from the most stop-start traffic – with drivers in Istanbul coming out worse, experiencing 31,200 stop-starts a year, compared to the lowest ranked city, Rotterdam, where drivers might only experience 6,211 stop-starts - more than 24,000 fewer.
The study was carried out for Castrol by TomTom, using information from its satellite navigation systems on vehicles in 50 cities worldwide. The goal was to highlight the pressures that changing driving conditions place on vehicles across the globe.
Here in the UK, the total number of stops per year by all drivers in London is 225,644,745. The figure for Manchester is 10,521,105. Other cities in the study include Beijing with 28,200, Manchester with 22,680, London with 21,000 stop-starts, New York with 15,480, and Sydney with 13,200. Stop-start driving can increase microscopic wear in car engines and Castrol’s studies have shown that even a normal driver can experience as many as 18,000 stop-starts every year. 

According to Castrol engineers, frequent stop-starts can cause increased wear to a car engine. The number of stop-starts reflect the driving conditions and situations drivers are facing in each market. These results show the size of the stop-start problem and indicate that precautions are necessary, one of the reasons why Castrol commissioned this study.
Castrol have identified three levels of stop-start driving, Green, Amber and Red (detailed below): 

· GREEN: Moderate level of stop-start driving, as drivers are experiencing less than 8,000 stop-starts per year. Recommend drivers to take necessary precautions against stop-start engine wear.
· AMBER: Heavy level of stop-start driving, as drivers are experiencing 8,000 stop-starts or more per year. Drivers should take actions to protect against stop-start engine wear.
· RED: Severe level of stop-start driving, as drivers are experiencing 18,000 stop-starts or more per year. Drivers should take actions to protect against stop-start engine wear. 

Amber and Red warn drivers of heavy stop-start conditions which are likely to bring about serious stop-start wear to the engines. They will trigger drivers to take appropriate actions to fight against stop-start wear and protect their engines every time they start.
The project highlights stop-start driving, including traffic, urbanisation, and short journeys experienced in each area. Data from vehicles and trips within a region and time span was aggregated by TomTom, total driven miles and total number of stops calculated, and an average number of stops per driven mile per region derived.
Gareth Bracchi, Senior Development Technologist at Castrol, said: “This project confirmed that drivers were making lots of stop-starts in their vehicles. In fact the numbers of stop-starts per year far exceeded our initial expectations – almost double in some cases! This highlighted that there are many more drivers out there that need the stop-start wear protection of Castrol MAGNATEC STOP-START.”
Ralf-Peter Schäfer, Head of Traffic at TomTom, said: “The results from the Index are fascinating and working with Castrol to produce the Index has been very revealing. Istanbul’s highest stop rate among the big cities corresponds to its very high congestion level, followed by Moscow and Mexico City, certainly founded by heavy daily congestion as well. Traveling in Rotterdam however goes along with the lowest stop rate as the city has moderate congestion.”
Please check out the Castrol MAGNATEC STOP-START Index report here to see where your local city stands globally. For more information on the methodology of the study and implications of stop-starts on your engine, please visit http://magnatec.castrol.com/campaigns/stop-start-index.html

EXCLUSIVE NEWS: New TomTom Traffic Jam Buster Is Go!

Leading portable navigation device manufacturer, TomTom, has launched a new version of their superb TomTom Traffic – with its real time information service, assisting you in avoiding the hell of sitting in traffic, and keeping you safe.
And until the Government's recently announced £28 billion investment of our UK roads kicks in, the new TomTom Traffic system is the best chance you've got of avoiding traffic jam hell – being accurate down to 10 metres (whereas other services are precise down to 100 metres) and now covering 99.9% of all roads.
Best of all, the TomTom Traffic service is FREE on all if you buy any of the company’s new generation sat nav devices, for the lifetime of the product! A few years ago, a subscription would set you back £100 a year. Bonus!
The new TomTom Traffic also now includes an innovative ‘Jam Ahead Warning’ – which pinpoints the precise location of a traffic jam and sends an early-warning alert so that drivers can safely reduce their speed, or even avoid it by turning off the road they are on.
TomTom say: "This Jam Ahead feature has been developed to help reduce the likelihood of accidents from sudden unexpected jams ahead on the road (e.g. over the brow of a hill or around a bend where the slow moving traffic might not otherwise be seen). Often accidents occur as vehicles are unable to slow from higher speeds to the slow speed of the back of the queue.
"TomTom leverages the accuracy of being able to pinpoint the back of a queue and the relative difference in speed from the approaching road. If the speed difference is significant, drivers are alerted with a message as they approach the jam. On the new range of GO sat nav devices, the navigation bar changes colour to red as a warning.
"In a recent survey of over 1,500 British motorists, 44% say they’ve had to brake sharply because of a sudden traffic jam ahead. Nearly one in four (22%) claim the car behind has driven into the back of their vehicle when they’ve had to brake suddenly because of traffic.
"Whilst 58% of British drivers claim they always leave the required stopping distance between their car and the one in front, only 44% knew the correct distance at 60 mph (240 feet) – with 56% either under-estimating it or admitting they didn’t know.
"According to a recent TomTom survey, awareness of the stopping distance at 30 mph (75 feet) was even worse, with only 35% getting it right and 65% putting themselves and others at risk by under-estimating it or not knowing. Despite these findings, a staggering 90% think they have the necessary skills to be able to judge speed and distance accurately whilst driving!"
The latest version of TomTom Traffic also detects road works on highways, enabling drivers to adapt their journeys to avoid delays or adjust their journey times.
Additionally, the automatic detection of road closures is now extended and includes major secondary roads as well as highways. This improves the accuracy of routing and helps road users save time and fuel from unexpected diversions.
Tests have consistently shown TomTom Traffic, which is now available in 32 countries, to outperform competitor traffic products. Traffic quality should be judged on four key points: reliability of data, road coverage, accuracy of reports and frequency of updates. TomTom Traffic outperforms competitor services on at least three out of four of these criteria.
Cool stuff! Go TomTom... saving us from time we will never get back sitting in traffic jams. That's got to be good, right?