TomTom has released the results of the TomTom Traffic Index 2016, the annual report detailing the cities around the world with the most traffic congestion. This year’s list has had a shift in the standings with Istanbul being knocked off the top spot by Mexico City.

Drivers in the Mexican capital can expect to spend on average, 59% extra travel time stuck in traffic anytime of the day, and up to 103% in the evening peak periods versus a free flow, or uncongested, situation – adding-up to 219 hours of extra travel time per year.

Next in the rankings are Bangkok (57%), Istanbul (50%), Rio de Janeiro (47%), and Moscow (44%), making up the top five most congested cities in the world, according to TomTom.
Using data from 2015, the TomTom Traffic Index looks at the traffic congestion situation in 295 cities in 38 countries on six continents – from Rome to Rio, Singapore to San Francisco. TomTom said it works with 14 trillion data points that have been accumulated over eight years. This is the fifth year of the TomTom Traffic Index.

Looking at TomTom’s historical data, traffic congestion is up by 13% globally since 2008. However, there are striking differences between continents. While North America’s traffic congestion has increased by 17%, Europe as has only increased by 2%. It could be suggested that this points to economic growth in North America, and economic depression in the rest of Europe. This European figure could be heavily influenced by Southern European countries such as Italy (-7%) and Spain (-13%) where there has been a marked drop in traffic congestion in the past eight years, according to TomTom.