Being successful

Read in The Washington Post of 31 March 2015:

One of the questions the students, following the course on Cities in Transition at the University of Amsterdam, were asked was: by comparing Moscow with Istanbul, what are the similarities and what the striking differences? Similar is the heavy traffic congestion, for sure. Moscovites complain about it every day, although every successful metropolis in the world copes with it. So does Istanbul. A few months ago The Washington Post reported on it. In ‘The world’s most congested cities, by the numbers’, Nick Kirkpatrick presented an overview.  ‘Carmageddon’ makes every day a bad day in the city on the Bosporus, he wrote. GPS maker TomTom from Amsterdam ranked Istanbul number 1. Can you imagine? The company found that a 30 minute commute in the evening took 54 minutes because of congestion, for a total of 92 hourse of extra driving annually. TomTom’s annual Traffic Index explores traffic congestion in over 200 cities around the world and ranks a total of 146 cities. Congestion level in Istanbul: 58 percent.

Mexico City is number 2, Rio de Janeiro number 3. What about Moscow? The capital city of the Russian Federation ranks 4 on TomTom’s list. Congestion level: 50%. That means: a delay per day with a 30 minutes commute is 29 minutes, almost a doubling. How about a city like Los Angeles, notorious for traffic jams? The city on the American Westcoast, always called the real ‘Carmageddon’, ranks number 10. Most congested specific day: Firday 14 February 2014. In Moscow it was Thursday 25 December 2014. In Istanbul Friday 25 July 2014. Total vehicle distance: 91,364.773 miles. It seems 2014 was a very bad year for driving in your city. Or am I mistaken? Traffic congestion means growing fast and just being very successful as a city.