Traffic Commute: Mexico City Worst

BY CHRONICLE STAFF

Mexico City has the world's worst traffic congestion along with Beijing, according to a new survey.

The IBM Commuter Pain Index, which surveyed 8,192 motorists in 20 cities on six continents, gave Mexico City and Beijing the worst score -- 99 each.  That made them worse than cities like Johannesburg, Moscow and New Delhi.

Sao Paulo came in sixth place, with a score of 75. That was worse than Milan. Buenos AIres came in eighth place, with a score of 50, which was worse than Madrid, London and Paris.

There are now more than six million cars in Sao Paulo, Rogerio Oliveira, CEO of Latin America for IBM, told the Business Future of the Americas conference in Peru last week.

New York came in 17th place, while Stockholm came in 20th place - the best result.

More than half - 56 percent -- of commuters in Mexico City say that roadway traffic has negatively affected work or school performance.

And it only gets worse.  Sixty two percent of commuters in Mexico City say that traffic has gotten worse in the last three years. In Sao Paulo that sentiment was shared by 61 percent of commuters.

Drivers also reported on the most frustrating aspects of their commute, which included stop-start traffic, rudeness and aggressiveness of drivers and unreliable journey time. In Mexico City, 63 percent of drivers complained about stop-start traffic. That was the second-highest rate worldwide after New Delhi.

After driving, the most popular form of transportation was bus. “Interestingly, the two cities with the most painful commutes, according to the survey – Beijing and Mexico City – had bus rates of 44 percent and 32 percent, respectively – raising the thought of how much worse traffic would have been if so many people did not travel by bus,” IBM says in its report, Globalization of Traffic Congestion. (See PDF link top right under photo).

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