London Is the Slowest Place on the Planet, TomTom Study Finds

London drivers suffer more from traffic than anywhere else: for the third year in a row, the UK capital has been named the world’s slowest city. New research.

January 23, 2026 at 3:32 PM / News

London has been named the slowest capital city in the world, according to a new report from TomTom, which analyzes travel speeds using satellite navigation data from drivers worldwide.

With millions of vehicles moving through the city every day, TomTom’s annual Traffic Index shows that the average travel time to cover a distance of 6 miles in the British capital is 35 minutes and 7 seconds, at an average speed of just over 10 mph.

That result secures London’s position as the slowest capital city in the world for the third consecutive year, and places it second overall among major global cities, behind Barranquilla, Colombia.

According to experts, the situation for London drivers is getting worse. Average travel times increased by 45 seconds compared with last year, and in 2025 the typical resident lost an average of 136 hours sitting in traffic congestion alone.

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