Traffic: Britain's roads are busiest in Europe and London is 3rd most congested city

By Ray Massey

Last updated at 8:07 AM on 14th June 2011

Britain's roads are the most congested in Europe, according to figures confirming what millions of annoyed drivers have thought for so long.

The UK has 16 cities in a list of  the 50 most gridlocked across the continent, with eight in the top 20.

Unsurprisingly, London has the worst congestion in Britain with just under 35 per cent of the capital’s roads regularly suffering jams, despite the congestion charge.

London has the worst congestion in Britain and is third overall in the annual table compiled by satnav giants TomTom, behind Brussels and Warsaw

In the past year London’s traffic flow has slightly improved, by 0.2 per cent.

London is third overall in the annual table compiled by satnav giants TomTom, behind Brussels and Warsaw.

Drivers in Edinburgh and Manchester also frequently get stuck in a jam with both cities figuring in the top ten.

Bradford, Belfast, Oxford and Birmingham are four of the five cities just outside the top ten.

The figures work out the percentage of main roads suffering daily congestion based on up to 800 billion pieces of data automatically updated from TomTom’s network.

Congestion is defined as a journey that should be one hour taking at least 20 minutes longer because of traffic flow. While the UK is worst, it is not alone in suffering slow moving traffic on a daily basis.

Four of the top ten are cities in France while the top 50 includes traffic hotspots as far afield as Norway to the Netherlands and Spain to Switzerland.

London’s traffic flow has decreased by 0.2 per cent in the past year against an increase of 1.2 per cent in Brussels, said TomTom, suggesting things are moving, slowly, in the right direction.

But London still has some way to go to match Cologne, in Germany where just under 19 per cent of roads are regularly congested.

The biggest year on year improvement has been in Dublin - a 9.7 per cent decrease in the last year, though the city is still 24th in the list.

A spokesman for TomTom said: ‘Some cities have made good progress in cutting down the congestion on their streets but many have a long way to go.

‘People who have no choice but to drive in and out of a city should try and look for alternative routes to avoid the worst of the jams where they can.

‘If you use available information to plan your journey such as our free live traffic map, or you can stagger the times of day when you need to be on the road, then you’ll find it much easier and less stressful.”