Overview
- TomTom’s 2025 data put average travel time in central London at 3 minutes 38 seconds per kilometre and calculated London’s congestion at 52% extra time, eighth-highest in the UK.
- Only Barranquilla, Colombia, recorded slower average speeds among the 492 cities and towns studied worldwide.
- TomTom’s analyst says widespread 20mph limits, legacy street layouts and consistently high traffic volumes set a low-speed baseline, with congestion adding delay rather than being the sole cause.
- Drivers in London lost an average of 141 hours to rush-hour traffic in 2025, with the worst day coinciding with a Tube strike on September 10.
- Trials of autonomous vehicles are expected to roll out across 20 London boroughs in 2026, according to TomTom.