As part of its research and development of traffic management systems, IBM surveyed 8,192 drivers in 20 cities on six continents, getting feedback on issues such as commuting time, anger caused by driving in traffic, and the amount of time stuck in traffic as a first-ever Global Commuter Pain Index.
Places such as Los Angeles, New York and London actually scored relatively low. According to the researchers, this is because those cities have been experiencing slow, steady growth over the past years, so the traffic infrastructure has been able to adapt to the increased amount of vehicles on the road. Cities like Moscow, New Delhi, and the top spot holder Beijing, have been growing too fast. As an example, the number of new cars in Beijing rose by 23.8 percent in the first four months of 2010.
"Traditional solutions - building more roads - will not be enough to overcome the growth of traffic in these rapidly developing cities. New techniques are required that empower transportation officials to better understand and proactively manage the flow of traffic," said Naveen Lamba, IBM's global industry lead for intelligent transportation.
Interesting other findings of the survey included the facts that 49 percent of global drivers thought traffic has gotten worse in the past three years, 87 percent have been stuck in traffic causing an average one-hour delay, and 31 percent have encountered traffic so heavy that they turned around and went home.
The city with the least painful commute was Stockholm closely followed by Melbourne and Houston.
Places such as Los Angeles, New York and London actually scored relatively low. According to the researchers, this is because those cities have been experiencing slow, steady growth over the past years, so the traffic infrastructure has been able to adapt to the increased amount of vehicles on the road. Cities like Moscow, New Delhi, and the top spot holder Beijing, have been growing too fast. As an example, the number of new cars in Beijing rose by 23.8 percent in the first four months of 2010.
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| Photo: Thinkstock |
"Traditional solutions - building more roads - will not be enough to overcome the growth of traffic in these rapidly developing cities. New techniques are required that empower transportation officials to better understand and proactively manage the flow of traffic," said Naveen Lamba, IBM's global industry lead for intelligent transportation.
Interesting other findings of the survey included the facts that 49 percent of global drivers thought traffic has gotten worse in the past three years, 87 percent have been stuck in traffic causing an average one-hour delay, and 31 percent have encountered traffic so heavy that they turned around and went home.
The city with the least painful commute was Stockholm closely followed by Melbourne and Houston.