Belfast named UK’s most congested city, beating London and Manchester for the not-so-coveted position

TomTom’s SatNav data has revealed that the unlucky inhabitants of Belfast are victims of the highest level of congestion in the UK. The research was published as part of TomTom’s travel index, which cited Edinburgh and London as the second and third most congested cities respectively.

Here’s the full data, courtesy of our friends at Statista:

Belfast commuters, according to the 2016 database, incurred an extra 52 minutes travel time per day at the mercy of traffic, with their most congested day – C-day, I’m dubbing it – occurring on Tuesday, 15 November 2016. Yearly, the bleak findings announced, Belfast drivers could expect to waste an astronomical 200 hours a year in traffic jams. A harrowing statistic if ever I’ve heard one.

Meanwhile, Manchester came in second in terms of extra travel time incurred, with a considerable 44 minutes per day. That’s a hell of a lot of brutalist architecture to take in, however striking you may find it. Third in line for highest extra travel time, meanwhile, was Edinburgh, hot on Manchester’s heels with an estimated 43 minutes extra travel time a day in the Scottish capital.

Surprisingly, infamously congested London, ridden with its iconic red buses, extortionate black cabs, and a now incessant flurry of Ubers, came in fourth place, with the research showing that Londoners racked up just 40 minutes of extra travel time a day. Listen to me, reeling that stat off as though it’s not an absolute travesty…

Yep, the facts are here, and they’re about as grim as we could have anticipated. If you want to slash your unnecessary travel time, without sacrificing your cosmopolitan lifestyle (read: city) then you’re best heading for, wait for it…. Preston. The Lancashire city experiences the lowest unnecessary travel time of the bunch, at just 90 hours a year. Possibly not the best tactic for estate agents to employ – insisting that scores of hours languishing unnecessarily in your car is preferable to the hundreds you’re likely to rack up elsewhere (a veritable treat!).