MOSCOW, April 5 (RIA Novosti) – With its notorious traffic jams, Moscow has topped the 2012 Congestion Index released by TomTom, a Dutch company specializing in GPS navigation technology.
Traffic in the Russian capital makes an average journey 66 percent longer than during off-peak hours. The figure reaches 106 percent during morning rush hour and 138 percent in the evening, according to TomTom’s annual report.
On average, Moscow drivers spent 127 hours in traffic jams in 2012. The Russian capital is followed by Istanbul, Warsaw, Marseilles, Palermo, Los Angeles, Sydney, Stuttgart, Paris and Rome.
TomTom’s Congestion Index measures traffic congestion in 161 cities with a population of more than 800,000.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has pledged to eliminate Moscow’s traffic jams by increasing the number of parking lots, developing public transport and road construction.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev recently started using a helicopter for his trips to avoid creating more traffic jams in Moscow.
Ways of solving Moscow traffic problems