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Sam Boal
# on a go-slow
Dublin has 'the slowest city centre in all of Europe'
Dublin drivers spent around 246 hours in traffic in 2018, according to a global analytical report.
A REPORT HAS ranked Dublin’s traffic congestion as among the worst in Europe.
A report by Inrix, a global company that specialises in transportation analytics, found that Dublin drivers spent around 246 hours in traffic in 2018.
The other European cities where drivers spend the most time in their cars were Rome (254 hours), Paris (237 hours), Rostov-on-Don (237 hours) and London (227 hours).
“Dublin also has the distinction of having the slowest city centre in all of Europe, where speeds dip as low as 6 mph,” the report said (which is around 9.6 kmph).
At peak times, speeds reach around 18 kmph, at off-peak times speeds are at around 37 kmph, and during ‘free-flow’ times, speeds reach an average of 45 kmph.
According to the report’s ‘Hours Lost in Congestion’ metric, which compares the total number of hours lost in congestion during peak commute periods compared to ‘free-flow’ conditions, Dublin was the third-worst city (200 cities from 38 countries were analysed).
The report found that eight of the top 10 cities under this metric were European.
“The age of these cities is a primary factor. In the cases of Rome (1), Paris (4), London (5) and Milan (6), their oldest roads can be traced back to the Roman period.
Interestingly, each of these cities features a ring road, which forms a physical boundary between pre- and post-automotive construction.
The outcome being car-centric infrastructure that quite literally runs into dense public transit or walking development patterns. In essence, cars enter neighbourhoods designed for horses and walking.
Moscow was found to be the most congested city in Europe when population and commuting behaviour was taken into account; Dublin was ranked 52nd by this same metric.
