
41 hours a year sitting in a car without moving. That is the time spent by car drivers in Barcelona stuck in traffic jams in a year. The city is already the Spanish municipality where drivers spend the most time in traffic jams.
This is according to the Global Traffic Scorecard 2024 report, prepared by the consulting firm Inrix, which points out that a good part of those 41 hours are spent during rush hours on weekdays.
The Catalan capital shares first place with Madrid, which also records 41 hours lost annually in traffic jams. They are followed by Seville (27 hours), Palma de Mallorca (26) and Valencia (22), completing the top five cities with the most traffic in Spain.
Half the worst traffic jams in the world
Despite leading the Spanish ranking, Barcelona is far from the most congested cities in the world. First on the list is Istanbul, which tops the report with 105 hours lost per year, followed by New York and Chicago, both with 102 hours.
In Europe, London ranks first with 101 hours, followed by Paris (97) and Dublin (81). Northern Europe seems to take the top spot. Other cities such as Bristol (65 hours) or Munich (56) far exceed Barcelona’s 41 hours, leaving the Catalan capital out of the European top-10.
To do this, the Inrix report has compiled data for three years, calculating the time lost as the difference between journeys made at peak hours and the same journeys in conditions of free-flowing traffic.