Bengaluru world’s 2nd most congested city in road traffic in 2025; rush hour speed at 13.9kmph | Bengaluru News
BENGALURU: No surprises here: Bengaluru has emerged as the second most congested city, after Mexico City, in the world in 2025.Data from the latest TomTom Traffic Index (the annual analysis of global traffic trends and commuting behavior), which strikes a chord with traffic-weary Bengalureans, comes at a time when the state govt is promoting the city on global platforms as the ‘city of the future’.
Bengaluru was the sixth most congested city in 2023 and the third in 2024.The report says that the average speed during rush hour in Bengaluru in 2025 was 13.9kmph, which is one kmph slower than that in 2024. Ditto with the time taken to travel a distance of 10km: it was 36 minutes and nine seconds (which is two minutes and four seconds more than in 2024). The congestion level (average additional time lost to traffic by motorists) was 74.4%, some 1.7% more than in 2024. With regard to the time lost during rush hour per year (referring to the average time spent doing a 10km trip twice a day during peak hours on working days), the report pegged it at a whopping 168 hours.Trailing Bengaluru on the congestion front was Dublin in Ireland. The other Indian cities in the list of top-20 congested cities are Pune (5th) and Mumbai (18th). While the average speed in Pune was 18 kmph, Mumbai moved a bit faster at 20.8 kmph.According to the report, the worst day on Bengaluru roads in 2025 was on May 17 (a Saturday) when average congestion level touched a whopping 101% when motorists took 15 minutes to cover just 2.5km (during evening peak hour). Rain, tree fall and broken infrastructure are reasons behind traffic congestion that day.Senior police officers attribute Bengaluru’s dismal performance to rapidly rising vehicular population, non-expansion of existing roads, stagnant road network and stalled or delayed infrastructure projects.
