Global road congestion begins to recover after Omicron hit
Quantum Commodity Intelligence - Vehicle traffic across the world's largest cities has risen sharply in the past week, data from TomTom showed Monday, likely due to easing social distancing measures following a weakening of the Omicron Covid wave in the northern hemisphere.
Vehicle traffic rose in 135 out of 185 major cities tracked by TomTom in the week ending 16 January, or 73%, the highest percentage since mid-November, before Omicron began to spread.
Only 23 cities reported a higher level of traffic than during the same week in 2019, but this was up from 12 in the week ending 9 January, which was a five-month low.
Road congestion was down sharply from pre-pandemic levels in Europe, which has been hardest hit by the latest wave of the virus.
An average car trip in Paris, France, took 26% longer than under uncongested conditions last week, down from 52% in 2019, as many employees followed government advice to work from home and as citizens reduced their social interactions.
In Berlin, Germany, the congestion figure was 28% against 45% in 2019, and in Amsterdam, Netherlands, it was 17% against 50%.
In London, UK, where new Covid cases have already peaked, traffic was almost back to pre-pandemic levels, the data showed.
The Omicron variant of Covid began to spread in mid-November and led to record new cases in many countries around the world, despite high vaccinations, in turn forcing governments to impose social distancing measures and close borders.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned last week that half the European population will be infected within six to eight weeks.
France's Pasteur Institute said last Wednesday that the country's peak would likely come within the next few days. In Italy and Switzerland, experts forecast a peak sometime between now and the end of January.
In Australia, Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly recently said that cases in New South Wales, home to the country's capital Sydney, may have already peaked.
Global car traffic returned slightly above pre-pandemic levels in early December before falling once more because of Omicron.
TomTom data shows extra time spent in traffic for a standard 30-minute trip, as a percentage of the trip's length, in a range of major cities compared to the pre-pandemic period (week ending 13 January 2019) and before the Omicron variant took hold (week ending 21 November 2021). The most recent week measures the seven days to 16 January.
Global car traffic figures by week ending:
| 16 January | 9 January | Pre-Omicron |
Pre-Covid |
|
| Cairo | 17% | 20% | 22% | - |
| Johannesburg | 23% | 16% | 27% | 46% |
| Vienna | 20% | 11% | 29% | 49% |
| Brussels | 28% | 18% | 40% | 57% |
| Prague | 20% | 19% | 30% | 57% |
| Copenhagen | 18% | 16% | 26% | 44% |
| Helsinki | 14% | 13% | 18% | 44% |
| Paris | 26% | 23% | 44% | 52% |
| Berlin | 28% | 18% | 35% | 45% |
| Athens | 29% | 16% | 43% | 43% |
| Budapest | 25% | 21% | 32% | 61% |
| Dublin | 36% | 26% | 48% | 49% |
| Rome | 26% | 18% | 49% | 58% |
| Amsterdam | 17% | 11% | 23% | 50% |
| Oslo | 21% | 20% | 25% | 37% |
| Warsaw | 32% | 21% | 40% | 52% |
| Porto | 21% | 14% | 32% | 58% |
| Madrid | 11% | 9% | 22% | 59% |
| London | 34% | 23% | 40% | 34% |
| Istanbul | 38% | 36% | 56% | 55% |
| Moscow | 45% | 16% | 51% | 58% |
| Kiev | 40% | 17% | 55% | - |
| Buenos Aires | 9% | 11% | 27% | 76% |
| Rio de Janeiro | 27% | 27% | 40% | 65% |
| Santiago | 22% | 23% | 36% | 62% |
| Bogota | 33% | 27% | 55% | - |
| Lima | 25% | 24% | 33% | - |
| Tel Aviv | 17% | 21% | 39% | 71% |
| Kuwait City | 4% | 5% | 8% | 82% |
| Riyadh | 7% | 6% | 6% | 47% |
| Dubai | 8% | 9% | 15% | 45% |
| Toronto | 14% | 13% | 29% | 70% |
| Mexico City | 25% | 26% | 40% | 65% |
| New York | 21% | 17% | 34% | 53% |
| Sydney | 18% | 15% | 31% | 61% |
| Mumbai | 20% | 21% | 32% | 77% |
| Hong Kong | 37% | 38% | 43% | - |
| Jakarta | 44% | 39% | 40% | 37% |
| Tokyo | 32% | 30% | 35% | 35% |
| Kuala Lumpur | 40% | 42% | 35% | - |
| Manila | 37% | 38% | 78% | - |
| Singapore | 31% | 30% | 27% | - |
| Taipei | 31% | 29% | 30% | 16% |
| Bangkok | 31% | 27% | 37% | 64% |
For a full round-up of daily TomTom congestion data and other key indicators for global energy fundamentals, visit Quantum's Data Dashboard.
