Mental Floss

These Are the World's 20 Most Car-Congested Countries

By Jake Rossen

Congested roads are worse in some parts of the world than others.
Congested roads are worse in some parts of the world than others. / Grafissimo/iStock via Getty Images
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Traffic jams may be bad in a lot of major U.S. cities, but they've got nothing on the United Arab Emirates. According to a new list compiled by Confused.com, the UAE has by far the most congested roads in the entire world, with an average of 553 cars per every paved kilometer (or 0.62 mile) in the country.

Confused.com created a list of the top 20 most congested countries by determining the number of cars and their total road network. The United States was far down the list, with just 18 cars per kilometer. The real jams can be found below, with the number of cars per 0.62 mile in parentheses.

  1. United Arab Emirates (553)
  2. Hong Kong (390)
  3. Singapore (192)
  4. Turkey (173)
  5. Bulgaria (171)
  6. South Korea (160)
  7. Taiwan (158)
  8. Israel (143)
  9. The Czech Republic (97)
  10. Malaysia (92)
  11. United Kingdom (86)
  12. Italy (78)
  13. Mexico (74)
  14. Egypt (74)
  15. Germany (72)
  16. Romania (66)
  17. Switzerland (65)
  18. Iran (63)
  19. Netherlands (62)
  20. Portugal (56)

Some countries, like the UAE, are trying to relieve congestion by offering more public transportation in an effort to offset both traffic and the accompanying pollution. But for now, driving there or any of the places on the list could mean a lot of time braking and waiting.

[h/t Confused.com]

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