Is it so difficult to drive in French metropolises? The TomTom specialist is trying to answer the question via its latest study concerning traffic in 2021. A return of traffic jams is observed while certain territories are plagued by new traffic problems.
In Paris of course, but also in Marseille, Lyon or Montpellier, traffic jams have almost become a tradition… Not surprising when you know that the number of private vehicles in circulation exceeds 40 million. Do you know which are the most congested cities in France? The manufacturer of navigation systems TomTom publishes its 2021 ranking thanks to the data collected by its users and gives us a 1er response item. Note that the results are far from always coinciding with those of another study published by the American firm Inrix at the end of 2021, due to very different methodologies.
Paris at the top of the list, as usual
The 11and edition of the annual TomTom traffic index thus brought together 404 cities scattered around the globe. Among them, Paris, which only takes the 37and position in the world ranking of the most congested cities. In France, on the other hand, the city of light is on the first step of the podium. ATver the year, 144 hours were wasted there in rush-hour driving by a daily driver, or six full days. Small consolation, it is still 20 hours less than in 2019 and less than a city like Marseille (150 hours). If the smaller Marseille city has fewer kilometers of traffic jams, there is indeed a tendency to stay there longer. On average, during peak hours, travel times are 36% longer than baseline conditions without congestion. In other words, over a 30 min journey, you lose 11 min.
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Toulon, Bordeaux, Montpellier: we drive stationary in the south
The French ranking of the most congested cities in 2021 highlights several other findings. Unsurprisingly, the metropolises (and therefore the cities with the most inhabitants) monopolize the top of the basket with record traffic jams. At rush hour, dozens of kilometers of tar are constantly clogged. In the capital and its suburbs, this number is close to 700 km according to TomTom… However, it is in the south of France that we find the greatest number of cities accustomed to traffic jams.
With Lyons (5and), Marseille, Toulon, Bordeaux, Nice and Montpellier complete the top 7. The Marseille city is the 42and most congested city in the world and remains in second place in our territory. The traffic jam rate there is 35%, up compared to 2019. A trend found in Toulon, yet much less populated, which sees this rate jump by four points. This is the largest increase in France last year, according to the Dutch company TomTom.
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Ranking Values in 2021 |
City | Congestion level | Time lost per year at peak hours |
| 1 | Paris | 36% | 144 hours |
| 2 | Marseilles | 35% | 150 hours |
| 3 | Toulon | 33% | 143 hours |
| 4 | Bordeaux | 32% | 145 hours |
| 5 | Lyons | 29% | 131 hours |
| 6 | Nice | 28% | 121 hours |
| 7 | Montpellier | 27% | 121 hours |
| 8 | Grenoble | 27% | 122 hours |
| 9 | Strasbourg | 26% | 117 hours |
| 10 | Nantes | 25% | 116 hours |
Nice, “the tortoise city”
In the anecdote department, we find Nice in sixth position. It is the city where the average speed recorded was the lowest in France in 2021, with 37.3 km / h. Nothing abnormal since the policy in place is modeled on that of Paris. Nice has announced its decision toestablish a 30 km/h zone by 2026 in the city center and to remove most traffic lights. On the side of the good students, we applaud Toulouse. While she is 4and French city outside the suburbs according to the number of inhabitants, it is only 13and of the national ranking of traffic jams. We thus lose an average of 52 hours in traffic jams, compared to 75 hours in Toulon. The introduction of multiple public transport (metro, tramway, bus, etc.) is obviously not unrelated to this attractive result for the Ville Rose. Lille, Reims or Avignon also limit breakage, with only five minutes lost every 30 minutes of travel during rush hour.
Traffic jams but also pollution
These traffic jams are not only bad for motorists’ morale. The environment also takes for its rank. 13.80 megatons of CO2 were issued in total in 2021 in Paris. 13.5% of them are solely due to traffic congestion, in other words nearly 8,500 tonnes per day. “TomTom explains that “to offset the total amount of CO2 from traffic, a forest the size of 11,000 km2 should grow for a year”, for the city of Paris alone.“The study also claims that diesel vehicles were responsible for 71.5% of these emissions, compared to 24% for petrol ones and 4.5% for hybrid and electric cars. Data to be handled with care because diesel-powered models also remain the most numerous on the roads of France. Including light commercial vehicles, which are still very rare to opt for other fuels, they represented more than 65% of technical inspections carried out in 2021.
