[Timpo]

Top 10 Most Congested Cities Names Vancouver For Worst Traffic In North America

By Mark Pereira

After last year's TomTom Traffic Index study named three major Canadian cities to the top 5 list for worst traffic in North America, it seems things just aren't looking any better for frustrated drivers in BC. Although we love to see Canadian cities rank high on top of many international surveys, it's clearly no honour to have Vancouver, BC named the most congested city in both Canada and North America.

That's right folks, Vancouver's traffic jammed highways and byways have officially been placed ahead of the infamous gridlock found in Los Angeles (which had previously defended the title). Current travel times throughout Vancouver are said to take about 36 per cent longer at peak hours when compared to the exact same route during non-rush hours. According to the annual survey performed by navigation and traffic management experts TomTom, this data puts Vancouver one per cent ahead of the car driving chaos in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, the survey suggest other Canadian rush hour rivals have surprisingly improved, as both Toronto and Montreal managed to sneak further down the list this year, respectively holding down seventh and tenth place. Worldwide this most recent ranking also places the city of Vancouver in seventh overall among the 169 cities ranked in TomTom's global traffic index.

Our best advice to all Vancouver commuters out there would be to get this Blow-Up Traffic app and start blasting your way through gridlock with a few good laughs. Click here to view the complete list of most congested cities in North America.

Vancouver named most traffic congested city in North America, beating LA
The top cities for traffic congestion in North America:

1. Vancouver
2. Los Angeles
3. San Francisco
4. Honolulu
5. Seattle
6. San Jose
7. Toronto
8. Washington
9. New York
10. Montreal

Top 10 most congested cities names Vancouver for worst traffic in North America (http://ca.autoblog.com/2013/11/06/vancouver-named-worst-traffic-in-north-america-rush-hour-most-congested-city-beating-beats-LA-los-angeles-TomTom-index-rank-ranking-poll/)

http://o.aolcdn.com/dims-shared/dims3/GLOB/crop/552x374+0+35/resize/630x420!/format/jpg/quality/85/http://hss-prod.hss.aol.com/hss/storage/adam/f1fa0958d2b5a496b6b7b8170ab4ed6/aaamemorialdaytravel.80cb543ec3b54ad1ac1dc8d3b61fa 876.jpg

[E-SPEC]

doesn't surprise me one bit. This city has gone to fucking shit w/ too many people occupying it.

[GG]

^

amen to that


the fucking traffic has increased so much for the past 3-5 years

its absolutely fucknig bs


wasting my time commuting to work as well as leisure time during the weekend.

Everywhere u go there is traffic, as if we are crossing the old port mann bridge


fucking gay as hell


government should have thought about upgrading the roads 10 years ago

jesus


the fucked up speed limit clearly dont help either

[Anjew]

i noticed there is much more things to do now compared to 5 years ago, which i think is a positive.

but yes the traffic is getting really bad.

ps gg wash your potty mouth with soap.

[Dragon-88]

That's why in Vancouver, the backstreets are the main streets. I prefer this since there's less congestion and less traffic lights.

[Timpo]

we just need better public transit...ones that are actually useful

[xpl0sive]

ummmm

http://www.revscene.net/forums/689944-report-vancouver-has-worst-traffic-congestion-north-america.html

[AeroK]

thats why i enjoy living in North Vancouver where traffic is suttle and calm unless if your trying to cross lions gate around 5-6pm

[wstce92]

I honestly don't think a influx of people/drivers is the problem. I still believe we do not have the population to justify our levels of traffic. I stand behind my belief that our traffic is so bad because 90% of the drivers shouldn't have licenses. Make driver licensing harder across the board, remove speed limits. Problem solved. /rant. Also. We should look to other countries and schedule road maintenance and construction at night.
Posted via RS Mobile

[Gh0stRider]

we beat LA!

[GG]

I honestly don't think a influx of people/drivers is the problem. I still believe we do not have the population to justify our levels of traffic. I stand behind my belief that our traffic is so bad because 90% of the drivers shouldn't have licenses. Make driver licensing harder across the board, remove speed limits. Problem solved. /rant. Also. We should look to other countries and schedule road maintenance and construction at night.
Posted via RS Mobile

doing construction during the rush hour is the dumbest shit one can do

[ilovebacon]

we beat LA!

yeee were number 1!!:alonehappy:

[supafamous]

The underlying methodology used by TomTom is fundamentally flawed - the calculation is based on travel time during heaviest congestion divided by travel time during least congested travel time. It essentially cuts a massive break to every city where traffic doesn't drop off dramatically (eg. Shanghai, Hong Kong). Even New York benefits from this.

What the report really shows is that we have peaky travel levels which doesn't mean we lack road capacity but that we lack alternative travel methods (eg. TRANSIT).

[Splinter]

whats wrong with transit in this city? I find it awesome. I mean, aside from the shitty passengers, arrogant bus drivers and all that.

The actual ability to get from one place to another by public transit is great. Sometimes its even faster than driving.

You guys need to try taking transit in a city like Victoria so you know how bad it can be.

[smarv]

One thing that drives me crazy is buses stop at every other block and everytime they stop they have to merge again stopping traffic. Why do they need to stop so often? Stretch out their stops so they don't hold up traffic! Buses also shouldn't stop in a driving lanes they cause everyone in that lane to have to merge into the next lane making everyone wait. This is what I have noticed on my commutes from Burnaby to vancouver /endrant

[nabs]

I kind of just find my "secret" route to everywhere I normally go to avoid being stuck in traffic. I think it's something a lot of people that have lived in vancouver for a while do as well. Backstreets, side streets, anything to avoid the major routes.

[E-SPEC]

Stop letting so many immigrants in, is one solution. Maybe too late. Or woman should stop having unprotected sex and pooping out babies!

[Marco911]

I'm not sure how you can blame traffic on immigration. The fact is when you elect short-sighted politicians who fail to plan for capacity requirements 10-20 years down the road, this is what you get. The highways are a joke and the mayor of Vancouver thinks replacing car lanes with bike lanes is the solution.

[meme405]

http://www.revscene.net/forums/689944-report-vancouver-has-worst-traffic-congestion-north-america-2.html

These two threads need to be merged...

[Timpo]

whats wrong with transit in this city? I find it awesome. I mean, aside from the shitty passengers, arrogant bus drivers and all that.

The actual ability to get from one place to another by public transit is great. Sometimes its even faster than driving.

You guys need to try taking transit in a city like Victoria so you know how bad it can be.

The public transit in Vancouver is still shit compare to places like Tokyo.
Perhaps we need more subway stations, more skytrains, more bullet trains, etc.

Look, their roads do not seem to be that huge, yet people in Vancouver seem to have bigger problems.

http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/tokyo_at_night_japan.jpg
http://vacationadvice101.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1-tokyo-9.jpg
http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/magazine/1506/st_tokyo_f.jpg
http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/7839/t23highwayssxv8.jpg

[Timpo]

ok here, you can see how Vancouver is so behind when it comes to public transit

Vancouver Skytrain
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/5417/skytrain2020ps9.png

JR Tokyo
http://www.mappery.com/maps/Tokyo-Subway-Map-3.png
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xUSQcEJEcJ0/UHkSfU7qEPI/AAAAAAAAPyU/fdAZDbuGTxk/s1600/tokyo+total+train+map.png
http://www.wa-pedia.com/images/content/TokyoSubwayMap.gif
http://ashleeoverseas.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/jr-map.jpg

[Splinter]

Um, toyko's population is 3 times bigger than all of BC combined. that's a stupid comparison.

Why the hell would you need a bullet train in Vancouver?

[Boostslut]

STOP EVERYTHING AND DIG SUBWAYS ALL OVER THE PLACE!

I think the answer to our problems is that everyone should be driving GTR's.

/thread.

[seekerbeta]

Um, toyko's population is 3 times bigger than all of BC combined. that's a stupid comparison.

Why the hell would you need a bullet train in Vancouver?

people need to get to hope/kelowna/chilliwack REALLY REALLY FAST!

[gars]

Tokyo old city limits: 9 Million
Tokyo Metropolis: 13 Million
Tokyo Major Metropolitan Area: 31.5 Million (50km), 35 Million (70km)

Tokyo is one of the densest cities in the world. Their major metropolitan area has just as large a population as Canada.

[Timpo]

Um, toyko's population is 3 times bigger than all of BC combined. that's a stupid comparison.

Why the hell would you need a bullet train in Vancouver?

No I don't think it's a stupid comparison.

Tokyo Area: 2,188 km²
Greater Vancouver Area: 2,700 km²

So Vancouver is larger and has much less public transit (subway, skytrain, etc).
Public transit must be useful in order for people to actually use them.
Wherever it takes you, it needs to be very close to your destination.

Look, the result is, Vancouver has the biggest traffic jam in North America despite the population being much less than Tokyo.

[Splinter]

Well it is a stupid comparison, so you're wrong.

It's larger, sure. But it has 1/15th the population. So it needs way less transit. I take transit just about everywhere, I only drive a few times per month. I have no problem getting around.

But given the intellectual prowess you display on these forums, I'm not surprised you can't figure out how to work public transportation. To be honest I'd be surprised if you can dress yourself and find your way out your front door each morning without written directions.

The reason people don't use transit here is because public transportation has a negative connotation. People are big on appearances and taking the bus makes you look bad. It's a social problem, not an infrastructure problem.

A huge part of the problem with vancouver when it comes to traffic is its geographical location. It's spread over 3 major waterways, which make for massive choke points.

[falcon]

Oh get off your high horse. Transit here SUCKS. You can not compare it to any real city in the world especially Tokyo. If you think our transit is good, I suggest doing some traveling. It works... yes... BUT is no in any way the most efficient way to get anywhere around here unless you live on the skytrain line.

For example I live in Surrey and I need to go to the ferry. Google says it will take 2.5 hours with 3 transfers and a detour to Bridgeport. You can not tell me that this is a good way to get around. It takes me 30mins. to drive there...

Any "real" world class city would already have this figured out. It does not make sense that for anyone east of the Fraser takes 2+ hours to get to the airport or ferry. Hell, it takes me 1.5 hours to get downtown. 30 min bus and the WHOLE expo line.

We need the equivelant of the "S Bahn" like in Germany here or Light Rail. Express type skytrain with less stops to bring people from outlying areas into the city quickly. And the the "U Bahn" is the normal skytrain that has stops every 20 seconds.

[Splinter]

Surrey to the ferry is not a path people take to get into the city so I'm not sure what you're getting at there.

Transit in Vancouver is setup for getting people from suburbs to the city, not from one suburb to the other.

How many people commute from surrey to the ferries every day? Not many.

People already complain about the huge taxes we pay to support transit, how do you suggest that they add in bullet trains and express routes that take your exact commute into consideration without doubling or tripling what we pay now?

How do you silence all the NIMBYs who don't want an express train built next to their house?

Lets hear some solutions.

[Cman333]

Tokyo old city limits: 9 Million
Tokyo Metropolis: 13 Million
Tokyo Major Metropolitan Area: 31.5 Million (50km), 35 Million (70km)

Tokyo is one of the densest cities in the world. Their major metropolitan area has just as large a population as Canada.

It's crazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzy there.

Traffic stops for thousands to cross a crosswalk. You don't believe until you see it first hand. Being that there's so many people in Tokyo its amazing how well traffic flows.

[icemiko]

According to Google Map, it should take 30 min for me to drive to work every morning, in reality it takes 1 hr!

[brute_4s]

they actually compared us in a bigger study that included south america too. and we ranked number 3. behind 2 cities in brazil that have population in the 10 to 25 million ppl range. much more than vancouver.