Maps and navigation firm TomTom has released statistics which reveal Southampton to be in the top ten worst cities for congestion in the UK.
According to the figures, in which Southampton came 7th, the city has a congestion rate of 33%. This would mean a 30-minute commute during the morning rush hour, a period generally considered to stem from 6am to 10am on weekdays, would take an extra 18 minutes.
For the average person, this extra travelling time, combined with evening rush hour traffic, added up to 144 hours, or six days, in 2019.
According to the Daily Echo, in this time commuters could have watched 128 episodes of Games of Thrones, or completed 29 500-piece jigsaw puzzles.
UK traffic advisor at TomTom, Stephanie Leonard, commented:
The south remains one of the fastest-growing and most congested regions in the country. The opening of Crossrail and the £150 million upgrade of Gatwick rail station should ease traffic in the next few years, but city planners can’t afford to rest on their laurels while the south grinds to halt.
The city of Southampton came 41 places from the bottom in Europe, and 79th in the world, after year-on-year congestion rose by 6%.
