Brussels is the most congested city in Europe
Posted by Richard Sinclair
Brussels is the most congested city in Europe, new research has revealed.
TomTom's latest traffic study revealed the top 50 most congested cities for 2011 and the Belgium capital was head of the list.
The research found that congestion in the city is continuing to worsen, with traffic increasing by 1.2 per cent since 2010.
London was found to be the third most congested city in the continent and Edinburgh and Manchester also both feature in the top ten.
In total, some 16 UK cities featured in the top 50, which makes the UK the most gridlocked European country for 2011.
"The data shows that you'll have the most stress-free trip in Spain, Switzerland, Norway, Hungary, Ireland or the Czech Republic, each of which has only one city in the top 50," a statement from TomTom reads.
Earlier in the year it was revealed that Volkswagen's Polo BlueMotion and Golf BlueMotion models had been made exempt from the London congestion charge.
The Top 50 Most Congested European Cities 2011
| Rank | Country Code | City |
| 1 | BE | Brussels |
| 2 | PL | Warsaw |
| 3 | UK | London |
| 4 | PL | Wroclaw |
| 5 | FR | Toulouse |
| 6 | FR | Lyon |
| 7 | UK | Edinburgh |
| 8 | FR | Marseille |
| 9 | FR | Paris |
| 10 | UK | Manchester |
| 11 | UK | Bradford |
| 12 | UK | Belfast |
| 13 | UK | Oxford |
| 14 | IT | Milan |
| 15 | UK | Birmingham |
| 16 | CH | Zurich |
| 17 | NO | Oslo |
| 18 | IT | Rome |
| 19 | UK | Aberdeen |
| 20 | IT | Naples |
| 21 | NL | Amsterdam |
| 22 | NL | Rotterdam |
| 23 | ES | Barcelona |
| 24 | IE | Dublin |
| 25 | DE | Munich |
| 26 | HU | Budapest |
| 27 | AT | Graz |
| 28 | IT | Genoa |
| 29 | UK | Nottingham |
| 30 | FR | Montpellier |
| 31 | AT | Vienna |
| 32 | DE | Hamburg |
| 33 | UK | Southampton |
| 34 | IT | Turin |
| 35 | NL | Utrecht |
| 36 | CZ | Prague |
| 37 | DE | Bonn |
| 38 | DE | Stuttgart |
| 39 | PL | Krakow |
| 40 | NL | Haarlemmermeer |
| 41 | UK | Bolton |
| 42 | UK | Guildford |
| 43 | UK | Wakefield |
| 44 | FR | Nice |
| 45 | UK | Leicester |
| 46 | BE | Antwerp |
| 47 | UK | Liverpool |
| 48 | UK | Cambridge |
| 49 | DE | Essen |
| 50 | DE | Cologne |
Curious to find out how congested parts in the U.K compare to traffic in Los Angeles. Traffic here is worse I think; I can’t imagine any city having it worse actually. I don’t think it’s possible. I mean the freeway is clogged even at 11 PM and 12 AM some times. Does the U.K have that?
Southampton gets a mention as the 33rd most congested – and it’s getting worse!
@Huntington Beach Ford Mustang
It’s rare to see serious congestion that late round here, but some roads (like the main M6 motorway that heads all the way up the centre of the country) have traffic jams pretty much 7am to 8pm every day.
Unfortunately, with limited land space and extreme resistance to big engineering projects by residents, it’s unlikely we will be seeing this reduce any time soon. Similar to the States, outside London the public transport infrastructure is also pretty useless.
That does sound pretty bad… I don’t remember how many lanes the 405 freeway has here, I think it’s actually like 7 or maybe even 8 going in one direction (with the carpool lane) and there are STILL gridlock traffic jams all the time. In L.A the traffic jams I’m referring to are on Saturday nights even at 12 a.m and 1 a.m often… Not the entire freeway but at certain parts. I don’t live in L.A but in Orange County so I don’t know how it is on the weekdays but I am guessing it’s still bad!