In 2023, Metro Manila traffic earned the dubious distinction of being the worst in the world. That was according to the TomTom Traffic Index, which based its rankings on factors like average travel time, average speed, and congestion level.
Well, the 2024 TomTom Traffic Index has been released—and according to the data, Davao City now has the worst traffic congestion in the entire Philippines.
Davao City’s ranking changes depending on whether you look at the city center (“the densest areas that capture 20% of all trips within the city connected area”) or the metropolitan area (“trip-dense regions that account for 80% of all trips within the city-connected areas”). We’ll focus on the former: In 2024, the Davao city center ranked third in the world based on traffic congestion levels, while the Manila city center placed 27th.
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When you look at the rankings for ‘slowest cities’ based on average travel time per 10km, Davao City placed eighth on the list with a time of 32min 59sec—which is actually 28sec faster than the corresponding metric for 2022. In the Manila city center, the average time to travel 10km was 32min 10sec, for a world rank of 14.
2024 TomTom Traffic Index: 10 Most congested city centers
- Mexico City, Mexico – 52% congestion level
- Bangkok, Thailand – 50% congestion level
- Davao City, Philippines – 49% congestion level
- Kumamoto, Japan – 49% congestion level
- Bucharest, Romania – 48% congestion level
- Plovdiv, Bulgaria – 48% congestion level
- Lodz, Poland – 48% congestion level
- Bandung, Indonesia – 48% congestion level
- Lima, Peru – 47% congestion level
- Dublin, Ireland – 47% congestion level
2024 TomTom Traffic Index: Slowest city centers based on average travel time per 10km
- Barranquilla, Colombia – 36min 6sec
- Kolkata, India – 34min 33sec
- Bengalaru, India – 34min 10sec
- Pune, India – 33min 22sec
- London, United Kingdom – 33min 17sec
- Kyoto, Japan – 33min 16sec
- Lima, Peru – 33min 12sec
- Davao City, Philippines – 32min 59sec
- Trujillo, Peru – 32min 56sec
- Dublin, Ireland – 32min 45sec
The average driving speed in Davao City was 18.2kph, but that dropped to 17kph during the morning rush and 13.3kph during the busiest time of the evening. A Davao City motorist lost 136 hours to traffic in 2023 during rush hour—equivalent to five days and 16 hours. Believe it or not, that’s already an improvement of 3hr 10min over the 2023 figure.
Based on TomTom’s analysis, 379 out of the 500 cities ranked recorded slower average speeds in 2024 versus 2023.
“The combination of population and economic growth is putting significant strain on our transportation networks,” said Ralf-Peter Schäfer, vice president of traffic at TomTom. “Outdated infrastructure and inefficient road planning fail to keep pace with demand. Additionally, the surge in e-commerce has led to a rise in freight traffic, further complicating the situation.
“Without a shift towards more regulation and sustainable transportation options, we risk worsening congestion that impacts everyone in our cities.”
